I am not into movie production for the fame — Aarinola Odimayo

For lawyer, Aarinola Odimayo, venturing into movie production was more of a passion and zeal to tell reality stories to the world at large and not just about making money or getting fame as the case maybe.

With a master degree in Law, Aarinola also doubles as a successful business woman and her recent love for art led to the production of her first debut movie titled ‘ Memoirs of 4’ which features a stellar cast that includes big name in the industry like Tina Mba, Remi Surutu, Adesua Etomi amongst others. In this chat with MUTIAT ALLI, she takes us through her debut movie journey, combining law and movies, growing up days amongst others. Growing up days….

I was from a middle class family, we didn’t lack for anything. I am from Ondo state, Ikele local government area, Odeirele to be precise. I am the fist from my Mum; I have an elder sister, that’s my step-sister.

We are five I have three other younger ones, we are not as rich as Dangote, bit I will silver spoon, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink. Being a lawyer There is a property side of it, family, and drafting. So, it’s got different phases and you just pick whatever niche that works for you. Even when I was in the Law School, I just never liked Litigation.

Litigation is a more radical part of law which some people enjoy but I focus more on other aspects that other lawyers come to seek me for.

How I ventured into movies………. That was when I got interested in writing scripts, and you know already, I do agreements and all of that. From there, I learnt a lot in my spare time and just think out loud on various things. And I think four years ago, I sat down to write a script which I didn’t write like a story, but like screen writing, and that’s how I started writing the first script.

I sent the write-up to my cousin who lives in London and asked her opinion and she would ask what I was trying to do and go through it, add her thoughts and then send it back. We went back and forth, and over the years I wrote about seven scripts. Combining Law and movies…. Well, Because I work for myself, maybe that’s is why I am able to schedule my time and plan things properly, like I said, I am not working for any anyone, so it hasn’t been stressful, the office takes care of itself when I am not there, I have some staffs, so if there are anything I need to do or attend to, when I get home I see it and try to do It. 

About my new movie titled ‘Memoirs of 4’…… Actually when I finished writing the scripts, it was titled 30s; that was its initially title, but while I was going into the production I had some financial hiccups so I had to pause for a while to put myself together and go back to it. Between the time that I paused and went back to it, ‘Fifties’ came and it had four women as well, but then I thought about it and didn’t want to release it so that it wouldn’t be thought that I want to ride on the vibe of that movie. So I changed it from 30s to Fluke and by the time I had finished the first set I was looking for people that would like to come on board to finish up with me. So, I was introduced to another lady who was interested in working and she said she would like the film to have a different name.

During one of our meetings, we thought of names and that was how Memoirs of 4 came about. The casting process was a bit tough….. My younger brother’s friend came around one time and asked about my writing, and he then advised that I should not play with the ideas I was having. He told me we could have it going. He mentioned he had featured in Tinsel and convinced me that he had a couple of people we could bring together. Later, I met with Tana Adelana and she introduced me to someone who was like a brother to her and at this point I didn’t know which of the scripts I wanted to shoot. She gave me Frederick’s number and I went back to Afeez my brother’s friend and we went through some of the scripts. Then we made a choice of the one we shot after we looked into every other script. He cost it and then we started. Having a stellar cast was prominent for me……. After the casting process, my team was able to get on board at the end of the day the likes of Remi Surutu, Tina Mba, Adesua Etomi, and Blossom Chukwujekwe, Linda Ejiofor amongst others. Pausing the shoot for lack of fund… I had to pause because of funds, but I won’t really want to go into details.

80 per cent of the movie was shot in 2015 and the reason I went back to shoot some more scenes was because I was the writer and noticed some things were missing, which I needed to see there. For me, it made some sense if they saw some of these things rather than just hear it. The people I worked with tried to convince me to go ahead, but I was bent on getting it perfectly done, and even when they told me it would cost so much money to have to reshoot, I didn’t mind. So, I had to start gathering them again. Picking between movies and law I will drop movie and take my law. Movie for me is just a way of being able to express the artistic part of myself, that’s what the movie production is about, you know that’s when you conceive something and you have to write it down it’s a way of extending the expressions that you have in you. So if I going to pick between my law and Movies I certainly will stick to my law I get inspired by some movie professionals…..

The likes of Emem Isong, I really like her so much, the way she does things and her movies are very unique, I also like Kunle Afolayan and Omoni Oboli. The future of venturing into movie production…… I don’t intend to stop anytime soon, you know when you learnt something and you are enjoying it, you would not want to stop, especially when you Know you will be better when next you try and I will like to try it again and again to something will now refer to me and say oh have you seen her, and all. I want to be in it and learn every time and keep and finding beautiful way of how to conceptualize what I’ve learnt to become reality.