If you’ve seen the popular Tunde Kelani movie, ‘Arugba’ then you should certainly know Bukola Awoyemi.
Although, Bukola had featured in a couple of movies before Arugba, her big break was certainly with Arugba. As a matter of fact, the movie earned her a new name, as she’s popularly called ‘Arugba’ by fans.
In this post, you’ll get to learn interesting details about Bukola Awoyemi including her education, marriage, kids and many more.
Bukola Awoyemi was born in 1988 in Kwara State. Her sojourn into acting began when she was admitted to study Performing Arts at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria.
As a student, she combined acting with schooling however she didn’t land a major movie role until after her graduation. This was when she featured in blockbuster movies like Poisonous Affairs and Arugba. Arugba won the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2009.
Bukola claims she has always wanted to be an actress and she had decided to pursue a career in acting even before she gained admission into the university to study Performing Arts. Interestingly, Performing Arts was not Bukola’s first choice course of study at the university. Initially, she wanted to study Mass Communication but she had to settle for Performing Arts.
Bukola’s journey into acting hasn’t always being rosy. She reiterates that she lost some roles in the past due to her refusal to sleep with certain producers. According to her there was a particular movie where she was already wrapping up the deal only for everything to be abruptly terminated. This is her narration of the story.
“There was a time; I was to feature in a film. We had finished negotiating for the fee, and it only remained for me to go get my script and then, start working. Suddenly I got a call terminating the deal. What happened was that the producer was somehow interested in me, and wanted to take me to bed before the role would be given to me. And since I wasn’t ready to sale my body I lost the role.”
This left her frustrated but her desire to fulfill her calling as an actress left her hopeful even in the midst of these challenges.
Apart from the frustrations from the overtures of randy producers, Bukola had face several dissapointments each time she went to the National Theatre for auditioning as she was always considered unfit for the available roles.
Apart from her big break with Arugba, Bukola has featured in several other movies. Some of these include:
- Poisonous Affairs
- Arugba
- Church on fire
- Akpochereogu
- Ire okunkun
In the popular movie, Arugba, Bukola played the role of a virgin girl, Adetutu who was said to be the object of worship for a particular goddess.
The Arugba movie was based on the documentary that Mainframe had done on the OsunOsogbo’s Arugba.
Adetutu had to juggle her role as Arugba in the annual community festival with her studies in the university. In the same time, she was also to take care of her grieving friend while nurturing her blossoming music career.
Initially, the Arugba role was supposed to be play by Ara, the iconic talking drummer or Omotola Jalade Ekeinde but neither of them could play the role because they were pregnant at that time.
In 2014, there were rumours that Bukola was having an affair with a colleague, Damola Olatunji. Damola is another popular Yoruba actor. He is also a producer and director. As a matter of fact, Bukola has featured in some of his movies.
Their initial meeting was on set sometime in 2013 and there were allegations that he was still married when he began dating Bukola. At the time Damola met and fell in love with Bukola, his marriage to his wife, Raliat Olatunji was barely one year old.
It seemed the long distance relationship between Damola and his wife was what fuelled the actor’s relationship with Bukola. Raliat Olatunji was said to be based in the United Kingdom. Damola’s estranged wife, Raliat was left devastated by the unfolding events and it seemed even Damola’s family were in support of his relationship with Bukola.
At some point, Raliat tried to save her marriage by returning to the country briefly but her husband was never at home to spend time with her as it was alleged that he often spent the night at Bukola’s place in Magodo
Eventually, the secret romantic affair between Bukola and Damola would later become a public affair. When Bukola became pregnant, the lovebirds quickly arranged for a close door introduction with their families to legalize the union.
In 2015, Bukola gave birth to a set of twins, a boy and a girl which the couple named David and Deborah.
Bukola had to take a break from acting to tend to her twins and according to her, nursing twins is no joke at all. This is what she has to say about her twins.
“To nurse a single baby is not a joke, let alone taking care of two simultaneously,” she adds. “Twins are a double bundle of joy, but they also come with double challenges. It means you have to feed two people, often, at the same time. You have to dress two; you have to lure two people to bed almost at the same time. At times, they may choose to play. At times, they may fight each other – you know, as other children do. They may laugh together; they may choose to cry at the same time. So, all the tasks and challenges come double-double, just as the joy comes.”
Bukola Awoyemi returned to acting two years after the birth of her twins. She recently featured in the movie, ‘Two sides of a coin.’