Shan George’s life, if scripted, would make an interesting movie. In what looks like Coming to America, Shan like Akeem (Eddy Morphy) rebelled against the norm of forced marriage and left home for Lagos in search of
light, life and love. She found light at the University of Lagos were she obtained a Diploma in mass communication. She got a new life when she joined the movie industry and rose to fame with her performances in Outkast, Blood Diamond and several other movies. But love had continuously eluded the fair skinned beauty whose repeated attempt at marriage always end on a sad note. When Klieglights tried to get her to comment on her failed marriages and the trauma involved Shan said, “I have had a couple of broken relationship but I have not had a heart break.”
Asked why, and she revealed, “because I’m someone that tells myself the truth. If it’s not working out then it’s not working out. I mean, why get a heart break over it?”
Does it mean she has never loved any of the guys she dated or married? “Well, I entered the relationship with my heart but then my heart is very sensible. My heart is a kind of heart that reasons, if you reject it, it just shakes off and moves. It doesn’t stay there and wallow in sorrow. Like my grandfather says ‘it’s not how many times a man falls but how many times you are able to get up that counts.” She also declared that she is not bitter about her past marriages and has no grudge with anybody. To her, the principle that has guided her all these years is, “live and let’s live. Be yourself and expect me to be myself.”
Shan is living her life to the full with her love for reggae music.
She loves reggae and one of the tracks in her album is reggae music. “The track three in the album titled Princess has a reggae beat but the lyrics is in my native language. I love reggae music because it usually has a gospel message to it and the beat is sorrowful. I love Majek Fashek and I think he’s one of the best in this country.”
Her album titled Nkenkene is already in the market. Shan explains more about her music: “I’ve done one of the videos, which is already playing on air. It’s a seven-track album and they are all in my native dialect.”
She sings in her language because she believes “that we should start celebrating ourselves and that is the message of the songs. I also believe that you cannot do hip-hop more than the owners of hip-hop.”
She also spoke on her T36 reality show.
“Right now we have already done promotion. People entered for the show and we did the shortlisting, did our final screening, got our final 12 contestants. When the political arena is more settled we will do the show because T36 has to do with travelling to the 36 states of Nigeria.”
When Klieglights confronted her about the story in a national daily that her ‘boyfriend,’ Momoh Osigwe said she wants to back out of the T36 project Shan responded to the contrary.
“I’m not backing out and it’s so unfortunate that anybody would think that I’m.”
Asked to comment on the alleged disagreement between her and Momoh she said, “Well, it’s a write up. I haven’t even seen it. It’s people who see it that tell me and because I haven’t seen it I would not comment on it. He is the one saying all the things against me, I have not come out in a paper and said anything against him. Like I said before, I have nothing to say on this matter.”
And why did she choose to date a younger guy?
“It is all an allegation. I never dated Momoh.”
Shan said she has no plans for marriage right now. According to her, she is putting all her energy in her Shandel production outfit. “Shandel has been established for 10 years now and has produced about 15 movies and a couple of TV programmes. In between that, I shoot other people’s movies. Right now I’m writing a new script.”
Still speaking on her achievements in terms of movie production, she revealed, “my movies sell in Nigeria, Ghana, London, and everywhere else. Don’t forget that Nollywood has gone international so there is no movie that will not go international.” Commenting on the movie market she said, “right now the market is very dull but I want to believe that the Censor’s Board is trying to get the government involved. If government gets involved, then things are going to be better for Nollywood. I see a bright future for Nollywood, a future where people from outside are going to come in to invest in Nollywood.”
She, however, lamented the restrictions imposed on movie producers, which she said is the major problem in Nollywood.
“In my opinion, the major problem we have in Nollywood is that of restriction. When you write, you should be allowed to run wild with your imagination. Again, if the problem between the marketers and Censors Board is not resolved, there is no way we would want to put in a large sum of money into a movie when we are not sure of how we are going to get the money back. Another restriction is from the Censors Board. You can write a nice story that makes a lot of sense but when you take this story to the Board, they tell you to remove some scenes. This affects the content of the film.”
Shan’s failure to appear in a lot of movies, according to her, “is because I’m more into production now. A lot of people call me and tell me that they want me to act but I’m using Shandel production to help a lot of youth explore their talent.”
