By Vanessa Obioha
With just two days away from his planned grand birthday celebration, popular Yoruba actor and thespian, Saheed Balogun has nothing but accolades for the Biola Alabi Media and Nemsia’s production: ‘Banana Island Ghost’.
According to him, the movie was done with international standards, unlike most Nollywood productions.
“This is the first time I’m working with international stunts professionals. It is a movie with a difference even if I have played the DPO character often. I spent months on set. They even had to shut Third Mainland Bridge for a day. It is incredible. A very fantastic movie. With this movie, I learnt that nothing is impossible when you have a vision.”
But beyond the quality of production, Saheed believes that his feature in B.I.G. was a divine orchestration.
“I left the set a day to my birthday to go to the Holy Land. So leaving a holy set to a holy land makes you holy when you return. So I spent the last day of the first-half of my life on this set. This movie makes me call myself the golden boy.”
Born on February 5, 1967, Balogun postponed the celebration of his birthday to July 4, due to the unfortunate loss of his colleagues in the industry. This, he said, was a sign of respect to the departed souls.
The celebration will spread across four days. The first day will feature a visit to University College Hospital, Ibadan.
“I had an accident in 2006, was in coma but survived. I have to say thank you. Same day I will discuss with the theatre arts students to tell them that there is a parallel line between stage acting and screen acting. They are two different things, just have common elements. The second day will be a gathering of Saheed, the stars and the corporate bodies. About 150 guests are invited. We will have two segments where the stars will be enlightened by the corporate bodies and other professionals on issues like insurance, road safety, law, media, etc. Renowned personalities expected to speak at the event include Biola Alabi, Adekunle Ayeni, Desmond Elliot while the Minister of Culture and Information, Lai Mohammed will chair the event,” he said.
On the third day, Saheed will visit a remand home for young boys and on the final day, a grand celebration will hold with King Wasiu Ayinde, K1 De Ultimate, on the band stand Saheed expressed great optimism regarding B.I.G. He believes the movie will shatter box office when it hits the cinemas on August 4.
