Damola Olatunji is a popular Nollywood actor of the Yoruba genre. He has featured in over 100 movies since he debuted as an actor. He is also a producer and director.
In this post, you’ll discover a lot of interesting things about the life of this talented Nollywood actor and director.
Early life and Education
Olatunji was born in Edo Agbo in Osun State. He graduated from Yaba College of Technology as an Electrical Engineer.
He was raised by his mother Ajibola Anike Olatunji as his father was often for days most times.
According to Olatunji, his mother was a prophetess and she was quite strict while raising him.
The actor recalled that his mother often gave him advice about women and life in general. He revealed that his mother always warned him to be careful with women as they could ruin his life. She also told the actor along with his siblings that if any of them impregnated a girl, he must stop schooling for the child to be raised.
Initially, his mother was skeptical about his sojourn into acting as she believed that actors are wayward,
But the actor revealed that he promised his mother that he was going to love God even as an actor and live his life differently from other actors.
According to Damola, this promise has made keep consistent relationship as well as avoid being wayward because of his promise to his mother.
Career
The actor dreamed of becoming an engineer but when he joined a drama group in church, he began to see opportunities in acting.
He was invited by his friend who was working Nollywood to a movie set and as they say the rest is history. Olatunji play his first acting role in the movie, Ojo.
Hotel
Olatunji reportedly acquired a N60 million hotel. It was reported that the actor bought the hotel (PrimeStone Hotel and Suites) located at 305 Ipe Street at Owupe axis in Sango Ota.
The hotel was commissioned on the 1st of May 2016 by the actor. He revealed that he decided to go into the hospitality business because he is a naturally hospitable person.
However, there were reports, a few weeks later that Olatunji lied about the hotel acquisition and the real owner of the hotel had taken legal actions against him.
The actor responded by disassociating himself from the whole story and he hasn’t responded to comments on his social media page with reference to the hotel business.
Bukola Awoyemi
Bukola Awoyemi is currently married to Olatunji. She is popularly called Arugba due to her role in the movie, ‘Arugba,’ which was directed by legendary film maker, Tunde Kilani. Interestingly, there were allegations that Bukola snatched Olatunji from his ex wife.
According to reports, Damola Olatunji broke up his one year-old marriage when he fell in love with Bukola.
Subsequently he got her pregnant. The actress delivered a set of twins on the 3rd of January 2015 in America. She later returned to the industry 2 years after the delivery.
Here’s a brief biography of the beautiful Bukola Awoyemi just in case you don’t know who she is.
Bukola was born in 1988 in Kwara State. Her sojourn into acting began when she was admitted to study Performing Arts at the University of Ilorin.
As a student, she combined acting with schooling however she didn’t land a major movie role until she graduated from the university.
Her first major movies included blockbuster movies like Poisonous Affairs and Arugba. Arugba won the award of the Best Nigerian Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2009.
When Bukola gained admission into the university to study Performing Arts, it really wasn’t her first choice as she initially wanted to study Mass Communication. She had to settle for Performing Arts and interestingly she ended up enjoying as the course prepared her for a career in acting.
Apart from her big break with Arugba, Bukola has featured in several other movies. Some of these include:
- Akpochereogu
- Church on fire
- Dazzling mirage
- Ire okunkun
- Maami
- Poisonous Affairs
In the popular movie, Arugba, Bukola played the role of a virgin girl, Adetutu who was said to be the object of worship for a particular goddess.
The Arugba movie was based on the documentary that Mainframe had done on the Osun-Osogbo’s Arugba.
First marriage
At the time Damola met and fell in love with Bukola, his marriage to his wife, Raliat Olatunji was just a year old.
It was in 2014 and the actor had met Bukola on set. Their meeting sparked a flame in the hearts of these movie stars and they began dating.
Although, there were reports that their initial meeting happened in 2013 and Damola was still married to his first wife.
Damola also produced and directed several movies in which Bukola featured and this further solidified their romantic relationship.
And it seemed the long distance relationship between Damola and his wife affected the actor adversely and influenced his decision to date and eventually marry Bukola.
His first wife, Raliat Olatunji who was based in the United Kingdom at that time was devastated by the unfolding events but she could do little to save her marriage as it seemed even Damola’s family were in support of his relationship with Bukola.
At some point, she tried to save her marriage by returning to the country to stay with her husband but he was never at home to spend time with her as it was alleged that he often spent the night at Bukola’s place in Magodo.
Initially, Damola’s relationship with Bukola was kept secret but it would later become a public affair when Bukola became pregnant.
And it looked like when the affair became public, it added a level of seriousness to the whole thing as the lovebirds quickly arranged for a close door introduction with their families to legalize the union.