AMBO 5 kicks off

After several months of elaborate planning and networking, the fifth edition of the Amstel Malta Box Office, AMBO, reality TV show, finally made a debut on several television stations across the country with rousing ovation and glitz. And from the first episode, it was obvious that teeming followers of the reality television show, the sponsorship platform of Amstel Malta, the non-alcoholic drink from Nigerian Breweries Plc, are in for another season of compelling television experience.
Committed to giving uncut acting talents in Nigeria a template to achieve their dreams, viewers were ushered into the world of tens of thousands of wannabes who had applied for the popular show across the country, as they shouted, sweated, hollered and murmured and in many cases, whimpered and cried to impress the judges that they deserved to be in the highly competitive AMBO house. For many of them, winning the N2.5million prize money, brand new car and a lead role in a major box office movie is secondary compared to the boundless opportunities and template AMBO has been offering unsung Nigerian youths to harness and market their latent acting talents. From Lagos to Imo, Enugu, Owerri and Benin, starry-eyed youths thronged the different audition venues to have a shot at fame and fortune as has become the tradition of AMBO. While many, as would be seen in subsequent episodes, put up mediocre performances at the auditions, many came well prepared to be part of the AMBO
Hall of Fame. This is understandable.
Since 2005, AMBO, aside other laudable objectives, has been at the forefront of the vanguard to inject fresh talents into the homegrown movie industry now popularly known as Nollywood. Azizat Sadiq, an Ordinary National Diploma, OND, holder from the Lagos State Polytechnic, was another acting hopeful who became an overnight sensation in Nollywood after winning the first edition of AMBO and making a strong claim for the top spot with her debut movie, Sitanda. But it was O.C Ukeje, winner of the second edition whose role in White Waters, also an AMBO movie that helped to drum home that the show’s alumni came well groomed to compete for a space in the roll call of A-list actors. He was adjudged the best up and coming actor at the continent’s most prestigious movie awards ceremony, the Africa Movie Academy Awards, AMAA. While Bhaira Mcwizu, winner of the 2008 AMBO, is already making industry stakeholders ponder where she had been all along for her methodical
portrayal of a feisty but determined young lady in the AMBO-sponsored Cindy’s Notes, Adewole Ojo, last year’s winner, is currently on location shooting his own movie.
With this in mind, it did not come as a surprise that some of this year’s entrants almost bent double to convince the judges of their preparedness to be in the AMBO House. But for tested thespians like: Norbert Young, Uche Sam Anyamele, Ofia Mbaka and Uche Ogbodo among other regional judges, it takes more than a pretty face and brawns to be in the house. Some of those who convinced them beyond doubts are already in the house, but those who could not raise their game beyond the mediocre level, are back home, lamenting over what they did wrong and what they did not do right. For the ten lucky housemates, the battle for the most talented and perhaps, luckiest person to breast the tape of victory on December 5, has begun.