How Adelove Helped Elesho Become a Star

Veteran Yoruba actor Adeoye “Elesho” Adewale has shared how the late actor and filmmaker Adeyemi “Adelove” Afolayan brought him from being unknown to a well-known name in the industry.

Adelove, a dramatist and producer who is the father of famous filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, passed away in 1996. He produced many popular films like “Ajani Ogun”, “Taxi Driver”, and “Ayanmo”.

In an interview on the AfricanAList podcast, the 67-year-old actor mentioned that he worked in different fields before he joined the film industry.

Elesho said, “The person who made me somebody in the industry was the late Adeyemi Afolayan (Adelove). He’s my boss. I remember that day nearly turned into a sad day for me, but he made it a happy one. I was living in Ilorin at the Low-cost Housing Estate, the houses that Shagari built. We had a producer who used to come from Ilorin; they were the only station.

“The problem we had with them was that they targeted the most beautiful women among us. They didn’t care whether she was your wife; they would still want to marry her. Those things cause a lot of fights, and we would give them a lot of money and still beg them for more. I had someone who came to me, who’s my friend’s younger wife. She came to Ilorin to settle a dispute at home, and the producer set his sights on her. I told him it’s not done that way and who she was to me.”

Elesho went on to say that Adelove visited Veekee Olumodi, a boss at NTA Ilorin at the time, and saw him during a rehearsal at the station. He described Adelove as a great man who helped many people.

“Adelove saw me and said ‘Albino,’ and I replied ‘sir.’ I had a manager from Okitipupa then. He got angry easily; he was upset because I was called a person with albinism. I told him not to worry about it because Adelove was our boss. So I told him to go and sit in the car. Adelove said, ‘Albino, you’re the one acting, and I enjoyed it. Can you find your way back to Lagos?’ I said I could, that I wasn’t blind, and that there’s a difference between us.

“Then he said he wanted to shoot a movie titled Taxi Driver and that I should come with five of my people. He called his PA to give me a letter. When I saw ‘Adelove Film Limited’ on it, I began crying. I never believed I would go to Lagos. He gave the location and time, and he also told the PA to give me 300 naira for transportation. We had just come with 10 naira, and we didn’t know how we would get back home, and now we were being given such an amount of money,” said the actor.

After receiving the cash and the letter from Adelove’s PA, Elesho went back to thank him for believing in him.

He said Adelove was not just his boss but also his benefactor. He did three more jobs for Adelove apart from “Taxi Driver”. Elesho added, “He (Adelove) began to joke that it was Ode-Igamu and asked if I could see, we all laughed. When the producer came, I felt proud. Elesho, what date do you want to come back? I said, ‘I will never rehearse under your supervision again until I become famous by God’s grace.’ I told him Adelove came to visit me, and he even went to my house, but was told I was not here.

“That’s my first time meeting Adelove. I told my people how to be respectful; some knelt, greeted him, and prayed for him as I cried. Adelove was the one who brought me to Lagos; he’s my godfather, my helper, my Alpha and Omega in this industry. In one of his productions, it was three of us who starred in it during the era of Celluloid Films, not video.