The Rise & Rise Of Movie Marketer OLASCO •How He Now Controls YORUBA Movie Industry •Why They Call Him Jagaban Of IDUMOTA
Alhaji Akeem Olatunji Balogun owns Olasco Films and
Record
International, a leading Yoruba movie marketing outfit, as well as Headmaster Music and
Films,
a sister company he established years after. The light- complexioned
businessman hails from Ilala in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. Olasco got
into the business of Yoruba movie Marketing in 1998. Within a space of 14 years, Olasco has
become the most powerful Yoruba movie marketer among the legion of marketers at their
popular Idumota
Market base in the Central Business District of Lagos Island. This Movie Marketer extraordinarie
wields so much power that a lot of practitioners in the industry and members of
the umbrella body of movie marketers, Yoruba Video Film Producer/Marketers Association of
Nigeria (YOVIFPMAN) believe he has a special bond with the incumbent YOVIFPMAN
Chairman, Alhaji Toyin O. Uthman of TOYMAX Films Holdings. To underscore
the role Olasco
played in his becoming the Chairman of YOVIFPMAN, Alhaji Uthman said in his
acceptance speech during the inauguration, “….I salute the courage of all who
participated in the democratic process that gave birth to this government…..the
master masquarade himself, Akeem Olatunji Balogun (Olasco)….(sic).” With this statement, Olasco has
become a Kingmaker
of sort, in Yovifpman. Obviously, because he formed and
oiled the structure of ‘Ireakari’ caucus (which means goodness and wealth will go
round all), which wrestled power from the ‘Asejere’ caucus which produced the
out-gone administration under the Chairmanship of Olufemi Odunuga,
GEMINI Films Boss. Alhaji Akeem Olatunji Balogun, without mincing words is the new Kingmaker and
Leader of
Yoruba movie
marketers. The soft-spoken Kwara State-born businessman has a lot going for him and he sure
has the ears of a large number of movie marketers. Little wonder, the newly
elected Chairman,
Toymax acknowledged him as a force to reckon with during his acceptance
speech. It’s no surprise that many of Olasco’
colleagues and others who know his clout in the industry call him the “Jagaban of
Idumota”
It is worthy of note that Olasco was
leader of Yoruba
Movie Marketers from year 2004 to 2006. Then it was known as ‘Yoruba Parapo’
(Yoruba Union) before it metamorphosed into YOVIFPMAN. In the same vein, Olasco’s
outfit is reputed for sales and marketing of top rated Yoruba movies.
To his credit, he has marketed blockbusters like ‘Jenifa 1&2’, the movie that brought
star actress, Funke
Akindele-Oloyede to fame, ‘Apaadi’, ‘Ija Ola’, ‘Akorede’, ‘Aye Olomo kan’,
‘The Return
of Jenifa’, Igboro ti daru’, ‘Alagbato’, ‘Kujenra’ and several others. His
outfit has won several awards as the Best Marketer for many years now.
He had his primary school
education at Ilala
and secondary school education at Iganmu-Oro also in Kwara State. He gained admission to study Business Adminstration at the Kwara State
Polytechnic, Ilorin
in 1986. After a National Diploma, he left for Lagos in 1988
to start business in movie marketing as a retailer. Over the years, Olasco has
become a household name among movie lovers in the Nigeria. Recently, he funded the shooting of ‘Jenifa’, a comedy block buster that has
continued to make waves in the Nigerian movie industry. He was also saddled
with the responsibility of marketing the movie. In an interview, some
years back, Olasco
opened up on how he got into the movie industry, “I started as a
movie retailer in 1988, then I sold only American and Indian films. In 1990 I had
become a Yoruba
movie marketer. I shot my first movie with N2000 the movie was entitled ‘Jangun Aso’.
Then, I co-produced the movie with Alhaji Toyin Uthman of Toymax Holdings, also
a movie marketing outfit. After that we also co-produced ‘Kini Kin Se?’
By 1991 I
had started my own outfit which I named Olasco Films and Record International.”
Olasco is one of the few respected Yoruba movie marketers with
fleet of posh cars and who are also power dressers. Olasco attends
social events with the likes of Alhaji Toyin Uthman (Toymax),
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