Mention Rukky Sanda and what pops up in your mind is the image of Venus. People are enthralled about her sexy shape, and think she should be into modelling or participate in a beauty contest.
But Rukky’s view is, “I don’t have time. I get calls for billboards, TV commercials but I don’t really have time for any other thing except acting and production.” Armed with beauty, she went for the kill. The film is Angel and the Beast; one day during the auditioning, Rukky sashayed into the auditioning hall, the director Sunny McDon took one look at her and knew he had found his ‘Angel,’ but Rukky thought otherwise.
“I was given the lead role but I didn’t play it because I was scared when I read the script. I didn’t know you could improvise, it was more than 30 scenes and I wondered how I could read all the lines. I later played the support role.”
In the movie, Rukky plays the character of a friend to the lead (Susan Patrick), who is in an abusive relationship with Rukky featuring as the perfect friend, with consoling words and gestures. The story takes a dramatic turn when Rukky’s character goes behind her friend’s back and sleeps with her man.
The movie, together with her beauty, made her the screen idol of 2004 and launched her into limelight, and as Rukky said, “it took some people 20 years to get to where I am today.” Rukky is mostly known for such bitchy, sexy and romantic roles where she is meant to unleash her sexual power on the victims who sometimes become a pawns in her hands. She might be a champion in the movies but in real life, the controversial actress becomes a victim. Her name is tied to that of D’banj. She is alleged to be in a serious relationship with the Koko master. Her love is said to be threatened by her colleague, Mercy Johnson, also thought to be having a secret affair with D’banj. She’s even touted to have had a fight with Mercy Johnson over D’banj, but the Nollywood actress had continuously denied this. When Klieglights confronted her with this fact during a film premiere at Silverbird Galleria, Rukky shouted on top of her voice, “I am not dating D’banj, I have never and I will never date him. He did not toast me, he sees me as a sister and I see him as a brother.
“I never fought Mercy Johnson, she is not my friend and I have never spoken with her.”
The rumour continues to escalate, with Rukky either showing up at events with the Koko master, or D’banj himself, showing his ‘brotherly presence’ at Rukky’s party.
It would be recalled that after her role in Angel and the Beast in 2004, she faded into the background and only resurfaced in 2006. According to her, she had gone back to school to complete her studies. Two years later she is not only an A-list actress but a producer.
“It is really stressful producing and acting a movie at the same time but the whole point of producing and acting was easy because I wrote the script so it’s easy for me to understand and fit into the character because I created her.
“The first movie I produced, someone else wrote it for me, I didn’t have time to write the story but the idea was not really the way I wanted it to look so I decided to write the next one myself. I remember finishing my first script and looking for someone to buy it. I started in October last year, I wrote like 10 scenes, left it till December, and wrote like 15 scenes, it was crazy. But now it can take me two to three days to write a whole script.
“I have produced two movies; the first is Lethal Woman while the second is Obscure Motive. I also have two other movies on the way.”
Rukky said she was yet to enjoy the fruits of her labour in Nollywood.
“The movies are not out yet because of the new framework for movie distribution. I still have more films to shoot and premiere. One of my movies is already out in America and Ghana but it is not yet out in Nigeria. A marketer is not allowed to release more than two or three films depending on the number of slots you are giving in a year. I have a marketer that is marketing the films for me but you have to wait 11 months before the release of your next film. Very soon, my films will be out in the market.”
Very excited about her movies she explained, “I’m going to premiere my first two movies. I did not really use the actual people I wanted for my first movie, though it later turned out fine. I was in it, Oge Okoye was in it, Nonso Diobi, Yemi Black, David McKenzi too. But at the same time, I have learnt to always be patient because when you are writing, there are certain people you have in mind that are going to play a particular role. So, for my next movie, I have just decided to wait and be patient. The thing about getting artistes together is timing, you might get this artiste and the other person might not be available.”
Asked why she had not been featuring as much as she used to, she looked shocked before exclaiming, “Why, someone just said that as well! You should look harder; most of my old movies are aired on Africa Magic. To get my new movies, you have to go to the market.” Rukky said film production is not her only passion. “I do other things but for now I’m really focusing on my movies. I have like four movies more to shoot this year so by December, I should have six of my movies produced. Of course, I’m also in other movies.” Rukky confessed that her passion for film production was borne out of her need to curtail her consistent travelling habit.
“I used to be always on the move. Back then when producers needed me, I’d be out of the country. I could travel up to 10 times in a year, it was very bad. I did not have time to work because I used to travel, buy things to sell but now, I’m trying to do things that would keep me around and in the industry.”
The banking and finance graduate from the University of Lagos said acting is not about reading theatre arts in school.
“Acting should be your personal style and talent. Acting is not a job about you knowing how to act, you learn every day, and you can never know it all.” Rukky’s word to her fans, admirers and critics, who want to know about the guy in her life, is, “I’m dating a guy but he’s not in the industry.” Recently, Rukky celebrated her birthday in a big way but she wouldn’t really disclose her age. “I’m in my 20s but I won’t say exactly how old.”
Rukayat Akinsanya, also known as Rukky Sanda, has featured in over 20 movies since she joined the motion picture industry in 2004. Some of which includes Angel and the Beast, My Precious Son, Strength of Love, Legal War, Desperate Girls, Weeping Tiger and Heaven’s Gate.
