Winner of the maiden Big
Brother Nigeria reality TV show, Katung Aduwak,who has just produced a
movie, speaks with CHUX OHAI about his life in the last few years
It would be an understatement to say
that many music and movie fans in Nigeria have missed Katung Aduwak, the
lanky former production assistant, who appeared as if from nowhere,
seven years ago and won the maiden edition of the Big Brother Nigeria
reality TV show.
Between March 5 and June 4, 2006,
Katung, who was 26 years-old at the time, and 13 fellow housemates were
the cynosure of all eyes across the country and Africa. Day after day,
millions of viewers had stayed glued to their television sets and soaked
up the entire drama, which was telecast on DSTv, till he emerged as the
winner of the show.
Since winning the show, which was
regarded as the biggest of its kind in the country, had brought Katung
into the limelight, made him richer by $100,000, and guaranteed him open
doors, most fans had expected him to grab the opportunity and launch
himself on the social circles.
But, after doing a few adverts for Guinness Plc and Globacom, it was said that he practically vanished from the scene.
Soon after Katung’s sudden
‘disappearance’, at a time most people expected him to impact positively
on the entertainment scene, it was rumoured that he had fallen into bad
company and frittered away all the $100, 000 prize money he won.
But he has denied the rumour, saying he
invested the money into farming through his parents in Kaduna and Abuja.
Part of it was also used to pay for his studies at the New York Digital
Film Academy in the USA.
Unknown to his critics, who had
insinuated that he got a job at Chocolate City Records after he ended up
broke and penniless, Katung invested the rest of the prize money into
the popular records label and in a night club based in Kaduna.
“The club opened the same year I moved
back to Nigeria. That was the Christmas season of 2011. I have been on
the board of Chocolate City Records since 2007, though my association
with the team dates back to university days,” he said in an interview
with our correspondent on Thursday.
Seven years after he lit up the
entertainment industry by winning the Big Brother Nigeria event, Katung
is back on the scene as a scriptwriter, cinematographer and movie
director.
This time, he is eager to bring all the
skills that he acquired and the knowledge he gained during his stay at
the American film academy to bear positively on the entertainment
industry.
The artiste admits that he has been
absent from the scene for a long time. “Actually it has been seven
years, seems like ages now, since I won the Big Brother Nigeria event. A
lot has happened in those years, I went on to become brand ambassador
for Harp beer and Globacom, I worked with Rhythm 93.7 FM in Abuja and
Lagos. Also I was the National Condom ambassador for the National Action
Committee on AIDS. Then I went on to school in New York to study
digital film making,” he says.
Katung adds that though he had several
opportunities to appear in A-list movies after winning the Big Brother
Nigeria event and had received some offers from movie producers, he had
decided to turn them down.
“I turned them down because acting was
not what I wanted to do at the time. If I had to do anything
film-related, it had to be behind the scenes. I preferred the process of
conceptualising the movie, building it and passing the vision onto
actors to bring it to life,” he says.
Katung’s new film, titled Heaven’s Hell, will
be released before the end of 2013. Based on actual events, the movie
is expected to usher in a new dimension in filmmaking in Nigeria.
“Heaven’s Hell is a story about
friendship and love. Although, it has strong elements of abuse, it is
different from the average movie on domestic violence because it
captures all the elements (friendship, love, betrayal and abuse) in a
true art of story-telling and originality.
“The film dwells on the fact that not
all that glitters is gold. It also sheds some light on the existence of
domestic violence in our homes. It exposes the ills of violence,
infidelity, betrayal and other vices that many people in the society
today turn blind eyes to,” he says.
The cast of the movie includes some of
the best and talented actors and actresses in Nollywood, such as Chet
Anekwe, Bimbo Manuel, Bimbo Akintola, Nse Sule and Damilola Adegbite.
Also on the set of Heaven’s Hell,
there is a 16 year-old female girl known as Treasure Obasi. Katung
admits that he cannot wait for the world to see the budding actress in
action.
Interestingly in ‘Heaven’s Hell’, Katung
has decided to focus on violence against women, instead of dozens of
other possible subject-matters that had entertainment value. But, he
thinks it is worth the trouble.
“The society is built and operates
around children and youths. If we have battered and sad mothers, that
same negative energy is passed down to the children who will carry it
into adulthood. It will eventually affect the way the society is run.
The implication is that the abused children will now be the ones in
power. So the issue needs to be tackled from the root,” he says.
Beyond Heaven’s Hell, Katung
plans to take up filmmaking as a fulltime career. “It is a full time
career for me, no going back and Nigerians should expect a lot of movies
and good quality TV content from me in the nearest future,” he says.
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