Nollywood actor, Akah Nnani, has revealed how he was able to play the role of afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, in a recent movie titled Man of God.
The actor, who played Samuel Obalolo, a wayward man who had always been made to go to church but had outrightly refused, decided to be a minister of God because of money involved in ‘church business’.
Akah had also played the role of Fela, where he was seen performing to his (Fela) songs with striking similarities to the legend.
According to the actor in a recent interview with Sunday Scoop, it had taken God’s intervention and a lot of practice to be able to play the role. He said the role ‘stretched my creativity in ways that I did not know… ‘
He said, “It (the role) stretched my creativity in ways that I did not envisage. I did not have an idea of how hard it would be to ‘pull off’ acting as Fela. I did a couple of tricks to pull that off and that’s what we started with.
“The first sequence of shoots were the Fela scenes. A lot of prayer went into it as well.
“All the opinions about the movie are valid and welcomed but they do not take away from the fact that it was a good movie with a good storyline.
“Everybody has a right to their opinions. I also think it was a huge leap forward in the kind of stories we tell.
“Bolanle Austen-Peters (producer of the movie) comes from a theatre background where one line could mean a lot. One’s mind has to keep working.”
