Nollywood megastar, Monalisa Chinda recently premiered her latest movie, The Farm Boy, at iMax Cinema, Lekki, Lagos, amid applauses and plaudits.
The very successful premiere was hugely attended by several heavy weights within and outside Nollywood.
In this exclusive interview, with the publisher of SOLIDNEWSNG.COM Online Magazine, AZUH LILIAN, charming and cerebral Chinda, spoke passionately and extensively on why she produced and equally acted in her latest movie production –The Farm Boy.
The theatre arts graduate of the University of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, also opened up on other germane issues, especially those related to the advocacy movie, currently showing at cinemas nationwide.
Enjoy the encounter!
Congratulations on the successful premiere of your latest movie: The Farm Boy. Kindly share with us, what inspired the story?
Thank you. The Farm Boy, a MonalisaCode Production in collaboration with Arise Monalisa Foundation, is a soulful story of a young man’s redemption through the same earth that birthed his father’s hope; a moving metaphor for a nation that must till its way back to greatness.
Most importantly, The Farm Boy reminds us all that the future may yet lie in the very soil beneath our feet.
It is also wake-up call with an emotional connection for the younger generation. The Farm Boy is strong on farming and agriculture. It’s about agriculture business, resilience and redemption in rural Nigeria.
With the way we are going, with the food insecurity in this country. It’s important that we begin to wake-up emotions, get used to the emotions, for the younger generations to begin, embrace not just content creations, but also engage in culture, tradition, farming and make it a business. So you can take tech business, content creation as a business, but how about the soil, food, staying healthy, maintaining your well-being. So it is important I bring this to the front burner, not just as a debate but as something that every young generation must embrace to create wealth. It’s the purest way to create wealth.
What’s the core message you intend pushing out with this latest project from your production house?
Well, it’s just to position The Farm Boy, as a powerful and socially relevant film. I think that’s just what it is. I need people to talk about it, to generate conversations, on social media around it and about it. I want young persons to create contents about farming and agriculture by drawing inspirations from The Farm Boy. They can create a backyard or a flower pot, or little plants that can help in homes. I just need people to wake up, embrace other means if survival, means of creating wealth. So we intend to take this advocacy film to schools, universities, private screening for government officials, those in the private sector, government parastatals and others. So it’s important we get that done, because in The Farm Boy lies a very strong and powerful message.
Sincerely speaking, The Farm Boy is not just a film; it’s a movement to revalue and revitalise agriculture in our country. Agriculture is government, government is also agriculture. We need to understand that the real wealth of a nation is not just in oil alone. It can also be found in the soil via farming.
As a movie buff, kindly tell me five reasons I should visit the cinema and watch The Farm Boy.
Smiles…Five reasons? One, The Farm Boy was produced by me, your Nollywood best, who has been out of the scene for a long time.
Two, you should be curious to see what she wants to do or has done with this movie.
Three, when you hear the title, The Farm Boy, it should ring a bell, you will be eager to find out what this film is all about. Is it just about farming or other things? Four, I will also love people to know that the cast and crew, all played major roles in bringing The Farm Boy to life. So you have to look out for your favourite actors, who all dazzled in the movie.
It was painstakingly directed by Desmond Elliott.
In fact, aside my humble self, other stars that thrilled in The Farm Boy were: Francis Duru, Sani Muazu and Mariam Apollo. We also had: Tony Goodman, Efe Irele, Joseph Momodu among several others.
Aside The Farm Boy, what other projects should we be expecting from Monalisa Chinda and Monalisa Code Production and how soon?
Hmmm. I’m not gonna tell you much, but very soon, you will see and feel them. However, there’s another movie relaxing in the cooler. It will be out by next year. But because The Farm Boy is such a huge project, we need to tour with it first, and that will take our time.
What stands you out as a superstar actress in Nollywood?
I think it’s for you people to say. I just know that I like to do things outside of the box. I am not your regular type of actor. I have prejudices, I have embraced my time, when I was younger, I do things you guys liked then, but now, I am not focusing on me. Currently, I focus more on what I can do to give back to the society as a CSR. So for me advocacy is the way forward. So if I have to bring advocacy into storytelling, I will do it. Storytelling for me is everything.
Advocacy for me is everything and that has been what has inspired my type of storytelling in the last ten years.
If you watch me closely, I’ve not really done anything aside from my talk show which is, U And I With Monalisa. I’ve not really done movies that are gripping like that. So, moving forward, I have three films, which I have done in advocacy formats. So this is the first one I’ve launched. Because of the circumstances we find ourselves now in the country, we need to begin to generate conversations. We also need to start building our younger generations on agriculture and agriculture business. Someone asked me something about AI, because of technology, you can take technology to the soil, even farms, you can do that. You can create wealth through technology. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Let’s just look beyond the regular things people are doing, think outside the box, that’s what I do. I try to prick my fans’ consciences. It’s not just to go out with content, just in the name of let’s have fun, laugh, no. There are deep issues which people try to avoid talking about and I am here to spill the beans.
What makes a good actress?
The ability to interpret your role or roles, the best way you can. Also, you must completely immerse yourself in that make-believe personality. A good actress must stir-up the emotions of the audience.
What’s your message to the viewers our there?
Be resilient, be sensitive and be more humane.
People are beginning to cast aside the human beings in all of us. There’s a lot of hate that is been spilled out there. So I am only going to say to my fans, be more sensitive and always be careful with your comments. Stop spilling hate about others, there’s no more love and sincerity. Everything is about hate speech, cyber bullying and all of that. People are committing more suicide now than before. So we should be more sensitive, I think that’s my message to them.
