How friend’s betrayal pushed me into Nollywood- Aarinola Odimayo, producer
By Rita Chioma,
For Nigerian Lawyer, turned movie producer, Aarinola Odimayo sometimes disappointments turn into blessings in disguise.
The light skinned green horn producer shared with Allure Vanguard how a close friend’s betrayal inspired her to go into movie production; Memoirs of 4 .
According to her : “I have always found joy and fulfilment in writing scripts. I just write and keep them. Then one day, a friend of mine who is in Nollywood, came around, saw one my scripts and just took it. I thought she was just going through it. To my utmost surprise she went ahead and produced it without giving me credit. She gave me the excuse that, they had to change somethings in the script. That taught me a big lesson, so I decided to try produce one of my scripts, Memoirs of 4.
Continuing, the Ondo State born writer, recalled the challenges she encountered as a fresh face in the industry.
“At a point I ran out of funds. I had to pause for a while to get myself back together. The production kicked off in 2015 to 2017 and had popular faces like Adesua Etomi, Linda Ejiofor, Joseph Benjamin, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Frederick Leonard, Tina Mba, and more. Directed by Alex Mouth. It wasn’t easy having all these good hands in same production as a first timer,” she asserted.
Odimayo also noted that the movie, Memoirs of 4 which would be showing in Cinemas Nationwide from February 28, buttressed on some important lessons of life.
“Friendship, bonds, especially when it comes to women. We can keep malice and severe friendship over minor issues. Then the movie also centred on the efficacy of prayer, love, and the power in togetherness,” she added.
