We bring to you an exclusive interview with one of own; ace producer, the one, and only Mr. Azuka Benson.

 Mr. Azuka Malcolm Benson is a familiar face in the film industry. He is a film Producer, Actor and Director. His film, Ortega and his Enemies was a knock-out and a sell-out. And, he has undoubtedly carved a niche for himself in the film business particularly in the UK and Nigeria.

Mr. Benson spoke on a number of intriguing issues, please read. 

Mr. Malcolm Azuka Benson: Teacher, Actor and Lawyer. What is the best way to describe you?

The best description for Azuka Malcolm Benson is Multi-talented Professional, a creative person and someone that loves to work within the Community using the talent given to him by God to make a change, to make an impact in the community and in the wider community as a whole.

You trained and qualified as a teacher, why did you leave the teaching profession?

I haven’t left the teaching profession. If anything, I have expanded my reach to be able to give information by way of a tutorial in different aspects rather than just go into an institution to do a 9 am to 5 pm. I am still in the profession. I am still Registered. I have not abandoned the teaching profession.

Can we then say that you are into alternative teaching?

We do what we call Edu-tainment, using entertainment to educate. For example, I have a project called TAKE 101. It is a documentary on teaching upcoming Actors, Producers, Directors, Crew members with different backgrounds on the A-Z in filmmaking, from concept to reality, from ideas to Motion Pictures. So being involved in that project gives me the opportunity to continue to educate and help people learn the way they should run projects in a more effective and efficient way.

You are an accomplished Actor, Film Producer, Director and Screenplay writer; How did you get into the silver screen and how long have you been Acting?

It wasn’t by accident, it’s driven by passion. You see we live in a society where we have a lot of opportunities and you must be able to grasp them when they come your way. I create opportunities for others and at the time creating for myself. And, as I build, I help others to build. It’s a passion I have that I put into film production industry, where I have to learn a number of aspects within that chain of production. And, I like to tap into different segments.

And, each one I got into, I found out that I am very comfortable in trying that one out. If I can enjoy what I am doing, who would blame me. So, I have come in and literally looked at what can and cannot be done. The ones I tested, I loved them, so I have gone on to write a project, a film and in the cause of writing, I saw myself performing certain a character, then I see myself doing well the character, so I carried on writing that character. When I finished with the actual script, I said OK, because I was blessed and opportune to be able to produce my own project, rather than sit there and start waiting for when ‘a person might like your script, you go ahead and produce it yourself and make that dream come true. Therefore, I set up the Production Platform for that project. Also, having that skill to direct/produce the project, I went on to direct it as well. In effect, if I had gone into any aspect and found out that this is not me, that I can’t do it, then there is no point trying to be a jack of all trade or master of none. It’s a case where you have challenged your talent in an aspect and you found out that you are happy, you liked it and people that observed it said yes, you are good at this, you are good at that. Why stop yourself? You don’t stop yourself if things are going well.

Are there any Movies you directed or you played a role in that affected or touched you personally in any way?

No, none of the characters had been a demonstration of my personal life. It could also have been a personal life experience. Personal experience is not necessarily something that happened to you, it could be something that happened to somebody else and you wrote about it or about that person and what they went through.

When  I did write Ortega and his Enemies, it was clearly something that happened, I have seen, started off; it happened to my wife but the character is not a woman. The character was actually Otega– a man who was in love with the woman who initially had the experience, the inciting incident that led Ortega to go out and start committing crimes. So the issue there or part of the issues within that film was the experience I have seen happen to someone. But the entirety of the story did not follow that same character. Some of them were imagination, the others were things that happened in real life and thing you know that would normally happen anyway because you have seen them happen to others. So you fit everything together. None of it has affected me personally but I took away a learning curve from acting or directing the films. But not in the aspect of something I have gone through myself.

You now practice as a solicitor here in England, what attracted you to the legal profession?

The legal profession is something that, right from childhood, I have always found myself been kind of mocked, that you should be a lawyer  because I was always into constructive debates when in the end, I won using references, past experiences of what I noticed and using that to score points and that was in very normal scenario. I found out also that I have been able to give people advice on what to do to solve their problems. It may not necessarily be legal opinions on how to solve the problem but practical facts on what they need to do in-order to solve some issues. And those are elements you find in the legal fields.

In effect, as I was growing up, I have always had that at the back of my mind that, that would be the direction even though it felt like I was running away from it because my first Degree was in Education and Professional Studies. I should have gone straight to do Law but then all things been equal, I ended up finding myself drawn back to what I believe I was called to become. So, had I gone straight to do Law probably I would have gone far into it. But the life experience is OK, because you got help, teach and solve people’s problems in the academic capacity.

In an academic capacity, I have been able to help people, but I have always been drawn back to Law every time. I then felt if this is a calling, I might as well do it. When I did go to do it I found out the reason why I had that calling, because it was just things that really worked well with me, my life and the way I was enjoying the course. Because it felt like where have you been in all these years. You are supposed to be doing this, that’s why I did go to do it.

Which one actually tickles your fancy, the silver screen or the legal profession?

What tickles my fancy right now is the motion picture. In as much as you must understand that Law itself is a Profession, you have people relying on you to help or solve their cases. It takes a lot of brain work, research and it can be stressful to do. You cannot actually say people enjoy solving complex matters, whereas, in a screen, you are kind of playing a character. You have got all these characters brought to life and you see people doing stuff and imagination comes to light, people are telling a story and all that. In the end, the film comes made. And you do the red carpet, the publicity and all the celebrity bits etc. You find out that there is more glamour attached to fame; that tickles my fancy and could tickle anyone’s fancy.

You are the Vice President of the Nollywood Producers Guild, UK; Is the Guild a branch of the one in Nigeria?

It’s not the same Guild as we have in Nigeria. Obviously, they are in a different jurisdiction and regulatory bodies. Nigeria is Nigeria, UK is the UK. This one, Nollywood Producers Guild, UK is registered in the UK under the laws of the United Kingdom. But it’s still more or less under the same ethos, which is to support, enhance, mobilize and encourage the work of producers and for them to find a platform where they can share resources, support, and network in what they do. It’s similar to what is there in Nigeria.

Nigerians in Diaspora remit Billions of dollars every year to Nigeria but they don’t have the right to vote in elections there; as the Second Vice Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom (CANUK), Is CANUK doing anything to remedy the situation?

You must recognize Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom (CANUK) is a UK based organization looking at local issues. And, the local issue is really about looking after the welfare of Nigerians in the UK. Whether the ability to vote in Nigeria is actually anything of a welfare to Nigerians here is questionable. So primarily CANUK would be a mouth-piece in the sense of linking Nigerian organizations to the High Commission and to be able to make sure that if you are having a problem, you can be able to be assisted to sort that problem out.

Now, if you are to think about it in the sense of what can they actually do, they cannot be here in the UK and start going to influence the Constitution in Nigeria on how the voting thing takes place. If anything, it would be something that if all Nigerians are actually saying they would want to be done and they want CANUK to be a vehicle to doing it then it becomes something they can look into as part of the objectives. But they cannot start jumping into political matters and start talking about the right to vote and things like that because the majority or even none of the Organisations have actually said that they want CANUK to do such a thing. So CANUK is not going to sit down and just formulating that today or looking at how Nigerians in the UK should be voting in Nigeria. It’s just a fine balance there, or what should be done or what ought to have been done.

Nigeria is at a crossroad and there is bloodletting daily, why is Nollywood UK mute in this challenging time?

Well, you have a number of campaigners when there are issues especially issues back home. It’s not always the first person to start the noise or the campaign that will get the biggest impact. Sometimes it is those that come on it at a later part or in the midway, so you cannot expect every single organization to start immediately or parallel at the same time. So you got to strategically look at when you make your point and for that point to be relevant or to have the impact. If you are just going to say something for the sake of saying it just to tick the box, it’s not really going to address the issue or solve the problem. You got to look at what connection, what relevance do you have at any point in time, so that when you do come out and say this is where you stand, then things would probably change because of that standpoint.

So, UK Nollywood as it stands now could not necessarily be able to make much difference. UK Nollywood at the moment may not be in the position to make that difference. But if it is about, just say it so that they tick the box, then all well and good. But as I see it there’s no point just doing things for the sake of it when you know it yourself that you will not be taken much seriously. They would say UK Nollywood, they have just given their own statement, tick the box. Could that statement actually reach home and make any difference, would it change anything? So if UK Nollywood is in the position to make a statement and that statement would be loud, right, trust me, by all means, the statement would be out there and it would be done.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to go into acting or film production

They need to do their research and find out which area they feel more comfortable in, it may not be one area, it might be two areas. It might be Acting/Director, Actor/Producer, Actor/Writer whatever they feel, what they should not do is to sit back and keep procrastinating. They must find ways to get into the industry. It could be by attending Film Premiers, Networking with Producers out there, making their faces known should there be any project coming up that they can be reached out. So it’s something that, they just need to do something out there. Not sit back or if they do get any rejections they should not run away just because of that. Even at our stage now, we still get people throw things back at us, some people will not even look at your work before they say it’s bad, poor or whatever. It’s their opinion, you shouldn’t let that border you because they don’t speak for the entire society, they are just speaking their minds. They might be talking out of malice or just pure hatred. You got to have that thick skin to persevere and just make sure you take the positives and work on any negatives. If somebody says that something is not good don’t just blank it, find out what is it they are talking about and see where you can correct it. But if you find out that they don’t know what they are talking about, just ignore them and move on.

But always network, reach out, make sure you do some kind of training course in Production or Acting if you need to be a good Actor. Go to Acting school, there are many of them out there. Fine-tune your craft. You also need be unique because uniqueness is good. You have to be identifiable.

Thank you.

Mr. Azuka Malcolm Benson was interviewed by Sam Asoluka