JKPress: 2017-11-12

Tuesday, 14 November 2017

Entertainment News: Akinrowo, pursuing his passion

IN A FEW HOURS, Leke Akinrowo, will join the league of Nigeria’s entertainment industry pundits with the launch of his Riveting Integrated Entertainment Limited (RIEL), a film production and film consulting company, in Nigeria.

This is not a dream that suddenly falls from the sky. It has been a fiery but meticulous passion he had nurtured for many years while roving the corporate circles pursuing a career.

Today, Akinrowo is capping his ambition with the unveiling of RIEL at the Terra Kulture Centre on Victoria Island in Lagos.

Folks, friends and allies within and outside the entertainment industry, decked in assorted apparels, will converge to celebrate and brighten the memorable occasion.

A former staff of Chevron Nigeria Limited with 21 years’ record of service, Akinrowo, is eventually set to fulfill his years’ long nursed dream of becoming a Theatre Artist sequel to his first encounter, many years ago, with some Theatre Arts students’ open-air performers at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), in Plateau State.

Akinrowo, in a brief account of his passion, said he opted for Dramatic Arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, after having tried to study a handful of several other courses.

However, he is not just coming into an unfamiliar terrain. No! The entertainment world has been his familiar territory all along but one he had kept at bay for ‘fear of hunger’ as he confessed in a newspaper report.

Telling his own story, Akinrowo said his passion had also been aroused years back since the 1970s by the various folk-tales shared with him by his elderly kinfolks who visited.

“In our much younger days,” he narrated “Relations, on their visits would tell us stories about the Tortoise (Ijapa); and how it would outwit everyone and every other thing around. Its stories were so catchy to our young minds that it began to shape my world views.

In addition to that were histories on war and how that too, caught my fancy. Then, I began to fall in love with some ancient characters such as Adolph Hitler, Joan of Arc, Hannibal, Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte, among others.

“With these at the back of my mind, I took interests in, and absorbed some of the eccentric historical events that happened in Europe as upshot to the two world wars.

“It was amidst being fascinated by all these that I met the Lord Jesus Christ in my 300 level at the OAU. Being one with a mind captivated by dramas, King Solomon’s sway to life and godliness easily captivated my heart.”

But that was just the start.

His theatre arts voyage began when he worked with Chuck Mike’s Collective Artists starting as an Ad Hoc staff and later confirmed a substantive staff. That was after his year-long mandatory National Youth Service in October 1990.

He continued with Collective Artists till 1991. Thereafter, he co-formed Tempo Productions led by Felix Okolo, until due to persistent hunger, each member of the team ducked out to fend for more productive means of livelihood.

Being a man with innate passion for the entertainment world, Akinrowo, though gallivanted with other lucrative sectors for a few years, still found his way back till late 1994 up to mid-1995 when he worked with Chuck Mike’s Performance Studio Workshop.

Still in his quest for finding fulfilment in the entertainment industry, a real life drama played out as he met and had to get married to his heartthrob, Modupe, and mother of his two lovely children. This led to his 21-years career script being carved out on the dais of Chevron Nigeria Limited till he recently opted out.

Rosy as a corporate vocation in the oil multinational was, Akinrowo’s gaze remains fixed in the playhouse zone.

He kept a watch on the Nollywood from the scratch till it grew and became a global force to reckon with amid criticisms. “Today, Nollywood attracts foreign interests, investments and even admiration,” he intones with a sense of pride.

And Akinrowo was not only keeping vigilance on his fancy industry; he combined that with being fully prepared for his new venture.

In 2016, he studied diverse courses at the London Film School and New York Film Academy, respectively, to grasp the highest details and strategies of film production businesses.

His tutors and admirers at these institutes adjudge him to possess “a very good product in the shape of a movie script for a potential world class movie.”

Akinrowo has also been schooled in the hard realities of life with which he is being prepared to take on the new turf.

He said he had been told that as a producer, each one is largely on his or her own in the industry given that other million and brilliant movie ideas had been stillborn due to lack of funding.

To this he said; the lessons he had learnt while working with Chevron, that “everything was world class or nothing” had not eluded his memory and though the question kept tugging at his heart; he would practically relate the lessons learnt to everything he sees around him.

Other hard realities were that when he recently attended the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, he discovered that there were scores like him from all over the world similarly willing to network and dine with sponsors and funders.

But to his amazement, he said: “I realised there were thousands of people from all over America, Europe, Asia and everywhere hoping for similar opportunities. And though he showcased his movie pitch to a handful of persons who gave him the kudos; none expressed funding pledges.

Yet Akinrowo is not daunted by those bleak scenarios. He is optimistic that as he introduces his entertainment industry to the world today, November 15^th 2017; his trust in the God of all possibilities coupled with his vision will keep him hopeful and going now and the movie will certainly become a reality.

He keeps his hopes bright and alive and trusts that within the next five years, he will not be scouting for partnership for any of my projects. The qualities of his works will speak for themselves and will attract those with the money for quality movies of values to promote.

As the journey begins today, Akinrowo said with assurance: “I trust that I’ll be the hero rather than the villain just in a matter of years. Everything I do is backed by prayers and trust in God.”

“I hope to bring my concept of world class to our movies, songs, shows, theatre production or an event and every entertainment product I produce whether it’s in content and form.

I hope to be able to rank with the best anywhere in the world; well, maybe not in terms of ostentation or money spent, but certainly in the form and depth of the subject.

Lastly, what I hope to bring to the table is the quality of form and subject.

Right now, I’m currently working with a Nigerian Hollywood veteran in respect of my first feature film. It’s an action story with a lot of gun battle scenes and explosions that would be very captivating from start to finish.

“I collaborate because I believe that if you’re going to make a good quality action movie in Nigeria, you need the services of people who have the expertise. So, I’m working with people from Hollywood in that regard.”

Entertainment News: Akinrowo, pursuing his passion