Simi goes to Nollywood

The popstar plays a role in Mokalik, an unreleased film by respected Nollywood director Kunle Afolayan. The film follows a day in the life of a young boy sent by his father to learn to be a mechanic.

“I am excited to be a part of this project,” she said at a private screening of the film. “It helped me to come out of my shell and my comfort zone. I had to speak Yoruba throughout the movie and that was like the hardest thing for me to do. I also had to use some proverbs. But it still felt natural. It didn’t seem like anything was forced.”

The first reports of Simi’s entrance into the Nollywood film space came last year when Afolayan made an announcement on social media. “Simi will be playing Simi, daughter of a buka (cafeteria) owner whose character holds a significant part in the movie plot,” he posted.

Since then, few details of the film have been released to the public. Besides releasing the trailer of the film, Afolayan and his crew have not said much about the film. Nonetheless, production on the film appears to have been concluded and the picture screened for a select audience.

Speaking about the performance of Simi and another member of the film’s cast, Afolayan said they “did amazingly well" even as it "was the first time for Simi and Tobi Bakre [a reality TV star], yet, they were very natural in their delivery.”

Simi, for her part, found similarities between working with Afolayan and working as a music recording act.

“As an artist, one goes for video shoots and these sometimes take days,” she said. “So, I was already used to that part of being on set. Many of my music videos have a lot of acting in them as well.”

While her film debut is yet to receive a release date, Simi has announced a date for the release of her third studio album, which follows her award-winning sophomore Simisola. The upcoming album, which is titled Omo Charlie Champagne, will be released on the singer's birthday, 19 April. On Twitter, fellow music act Adekunle Gold declared the unreleased work his “album of the year already”.

To her colleague's praise, the ‘Joromi’ singer replied: “You and your great taste and your pretty face”.