Veteran actor Hafiz Oyetoro, known across Yoruba cinema as Saka, has gone to bat for Funke Akindele again, calling her an ideal producer who will spend whatever a film needs, and that hunger is exactly why some colleagues turn sour.
His latest comments on the African A-list podcast add colour to praise he already gave her in August after working on her film Behind The Scenes.
“Funke Akindele is young but very hardworking. Funke can spend anything to achieve her purpose. That’s why some people don’t like her, saying that she overdoes things,” Saka said.
Saka did not treat that dislike as a mystery. In production, he said, sloppiness and excellence cannot share a room.
“If you want to do production, you’ll be like the white garment. If you see someone with oil, it’s either you move or you tell them not to come to your place.”
In his telling, Akindele is not only the face on the poster. She is executive producer, a director’s support and often the lead, writing cheques most people never see.
“I see Funke as an ideal producer, an executive producer. She also assists directors and is the lead actor in the production, and you don’t know how much she drops for her production. She doesn’t like laziness.”
The two have shared sets for years. Saka reached back to a stage play produced by Sanyeri, where he, Akindele and a few others shared the boards. He recalled the plot with a laugh: three or four of the men wanted to marry her character, and she needed a liver donor. His character refused. What stayed with him was the discipline around her.
On one shoot, he said, a makeup artist was dragging her feet. Akindele cut it short.
“Funke told her that she hates lazy people doing this job. That was when I knew she’d be a fantastic lady in the industry because she’s disciplined. The girl faced her work well and perfect.”
Money and manners, he added, travel together if you stay on her good side.
“She has called me for jobs, and she pays me well. Aside from that, she’s humble if you’re on the right side.”
The most intimate detail was medical. Saka said Akindele keeps a doctor on location.
“If anything happens, she’ll call the doctor on set. The drug I’m using for my blood pressure, it’s Funke Akindele’s doctor that prescribed it for me on set. Funke, you’re doing well, God bless you.”
That portrait matches what he told interviewers in mid-August after Behind The Scenes. Then he pushed back at the “strict” tag that follows Akindele’s multimillion-naira sets.
Read “Funke Akindele Doesn’t Tolerate Nonsense!” — Saka Defends Her Strictness
Akindele has built that reputation in public for years. Falz has called her the most hardworking entertainer he has met. She has said her own growth sits on hard work, consistency and focus.