Entertainment

I disguise to avoid being recognised abroad – Popular actress, Lepa Shandy

Yoruba movie star, Folashade Omoniyi-Adewale, popularly known as Lepa Shandy, has shared the things she does to conceal her identity after relocating abroad.

The actress said she is now married and lives a life outside of acting, but peoplw who know her from the old movies still react in excitement whenever they see her.

Lepa Shandy said she had to start disguising her appearance whenever she is going out for fear of Nigerians making a scene when they see her abroad.

She said; “For instance, when I moved abroad, I didn’t want people to recognise me and I don’t also like staying around our people because they don’t mind their business. I sometimes don’t use make-up so they won’t recognise me. I just disguise. There was a day I heard a guy singing Baba Ara’s song in a shop, I had to run away because I thought he’d recognise me. Most of our people are very funny.

When I was going through my divorce, someone was recording me and I had to go to the person to say I saw what he did and I asked him to delete it. Thank God my lawyer was with me and my brother, who is an army officer. I don’t know if it’s a journalist or someone that wanted to just record and post online. It’s not even about posting it online but the reaction that it will generate from people online.

When I got a property, someone asked me why I didn’t post on social media and I said why should I do so? I don’t have to do that if every other person is doing that. A Yoruba adage says that “Ti Isu eni ba ta, a ma n f’owo bo ni”. It means that if God blesses you, you don’t have to blow your own trumpet. Most people that are making noise on social media don’t have anything or some are from homes that they’ve not seen that kind of life before. It’s not everything you must post on social media and that’s why you see a lot of Yahoo boys and ritualists who will do everything to make sure that they achieve that too. Many people live fake lives on social media.”

The 51-year-old Nollywood veteran also recounted how she got the nickname Lepa Shandy from a movie she starred in, and it stuck with her till date.

She explained;“It happened that I was offered a role in a movie by Gbenga Adewusi, Bayowa Films and the title of the movie was ‘Lepa Shandy’ and the funniest thing was that the name of the character in that movie was Shade, which is also my real name. So, after the movie, some began to call me ‘Lepa Shandy.’

I can recall that even before I took that role, I had a friend who used to call me ‘Lepa gawu.’ He took the name from a popular song that trended then. I was so mad with him each time he called me that. When I then acted that movie and it became a brand, that friend of mine was the first person to comment about it. There is a saying that there is power in the tongue and I will say that I am a testimony to that.”