The name Rukayya Umar, may not strike the huge followers of the Igbo and Yoruba dominated ‘Nollywood’, but it is a name that commands a standing ovation in the Hausa genre of Nigerian movie industry dubbed ‘Kannywood’. Apart from being a gifted singer and songwriter, Rukayya is blazing the trail in the movie world with her acting prowess.

Entervaganza can authoritatively reveal that Rukayya graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Recalling her first time experience in front of camera, during one of the interviews she granted sometimes ago, “It was with ‘Dawayya’, it was quite challenging because it was my first movie and I was inexperienced. It took us hours to record one scene because most of the artistes in the crew were new. At a point during a rehearsal, the director got angry with some of us.

It was taking too much of his time to bring out the best in us. But when the movie came out eventually it was a blockbuster.” On her first payment, “I was given N10,000 in the beginning and I was so happy because it was the biggest amount I had ever received then. For two days I was going to the market to buy things for myself and I got N30,000 naira at the completion of the movie, which I used to buy a Samsung cell phone. I couldn’t sleep that night,” she revealed in the interview. Although, Rukayya is said to currently combine acting with running an international business, Dawayya, Khusufi, Gidauniya, Sarauniyar Kyau among others are popular home videos that have conveniently launched her into the league of Kannywood hottest actresses