By Yetunde Adeyeri
In an exclusive chat with Pulse, Tope Oshin and one of the directors on the TV series, Daniel Ademinokan explained how they combined forces to produce and direct the new episodes of the MTV Shuga Naija.
Oshin joined the team after proving her worth with movies that include ‘Relentless’, ‘Fifty’, ‘Wedding Party 2’, ‘New Money’, ‘We Don’t Live Here’, and ‘Up North’ amongst several others.
To ease her job and get the best hands in the industry, Oshin decided to work with Daniel Ademinokan, who had since relocated to the United States of America, where he produces films with his wife, Stella Damasus.
“It’s been an amazing experience for me to be here back in Nigeria to work on MTV Shuga Naija. We all know that MTV Shuga Naija is a big deal. And honestly, I didn’t know how big of a deal it was until I got the call for the MTV Shuga. Of course, I watched the show on YouTube, because I’m in New York. So I didn’t get to see it on the platform here. But I will watch it on YouTube. And I’m a huge fan of the show. My kids watch the show, you know, my wife, my whole family, we see it. So when I got the job, and I got the offer to come and make sure that we can make it, it was a welcome idea,” Daniel told Pulse.
Speaking further, Oshin said her role as the showrunner role is exciting because of the power of control she has as the head. “For me, this is exciting, because they say, there’s no greater gifts to a filmmaker of control. So for me, as a producer, and as a filmmaker, in general, it gives me the opportunity to be able to tell the story completely from the beginning, until the end. So my work on the project started from developing the stories and infusing the messaging points from Stina life foundations, the stories on ensuring that they maintain the educational and entertaining value altogether.
“It’s been exciting, it’s been wonderful, and especially amazing working with a wonderful cast and crew, we have been, I daresay, the best crew that you can pull from anywhere in Nigeria around. Also, the best team of writers, it’s totally a fulfilling project for me, let me say that because as a director, and as a producer, then the roles are merged.
“And, you know, we have this amazing piece that’s called intuition, which is not just entertaining, but is set to change lives, it’s set to give specific messages to young people to the audience in general. For me, it’s a total blessing. And it’s a dream, it’s every filmmaker’s dream. So I’m happy and I’m blessed to be doing this season,” she said.
Daniel Ademinokan further told Pulse that he never knew how big the MTV Shuga Naija was until he made some research from Nigerians. He said, he found out that the TV series was huge among the youths and film viewers generally. “What I didn’t know was how big of a deal it was really in Nigeria until I spoke to a couple of people back in Naija. Oh, hey, I’m coming back to Nigeria XYZ period. And I’m working on the show called MTV Shuga Naija and their responses to me were really encouraging and show that it’s that big a deal. But being here already shows being a part of the whole thing,” he said.
Ademinokan, who co-produced ‘Here’ alongside Stella Damasus said working with Tope Oshin on the project was a delight.
He said, “I think it’s one of the best productions I’ve worked on. We have an amazing showrunner runner, Tope Oshin, who is also one of the directors, also Tolu Ajayi is one of the directors and to me and Tope has been an amazing asset to every one of us. Now she’s executive producing, her company is producing this as well. She’s also directing then also have any cinematographer like Yinka Edwards, BAFTA award-winning guy working with us on this project, and you have the best like the cream of the crop, the best hands you can find in this business in Nigeria working on sugar. And that’s why I will jump on a project like this.”
The first episode of MTV Shuga Season 4 is scheduled to air on major platforms on September 2019. The season sees Richard Mofe Damijo, Osas Ighodaro, Timini Egbuson and several other new acts coming on board.
Culled from pulse.ng
