Maryam Isah is a half-sister to Kannywood Actress, Mansura Isah, who is the wife of Actor and Producer, Sani Danja. She joined the movie industry about a year ago and has featured in a number of movies. In this interview with ALIYU ASKIRA, she speaks on the movies she has featured in, crashed turned down offers to feature in some as well as her marriage and future plans.
The last time we spoke was before your marriage in January. How is married life?
You are almost an authority in anything to do with Kannywood as such, I hope you are not asking me this question to embarrass me or to mock me.
As a married woman, you deserve respect from me so why should I mock or embarrass you? Is there something that I don’t know?
What you know and pretend not to know is the fact that my marriage has crashed. I am very much sure, you are fully aware because I used to be part of my elder sister, Mansura Isah, NGO activities and I used to see you around. As such, there is no way you will not know that my marriage has crashed, but in case you know and pretend not to know, I am now available for interested parties.
You are beautiful by all standards and have qualities that any man will want in a woman. Why did your marriage crash?
Up to this moment that I am talking to you, I am also searching for an answer to what happened to me, but the world is full of wicked people.
What they think about us in Kannywood is that we are either cheap or after money, and when they come to you and did not succeed in taking you to bed, they will come up with a marriage proposal.
After the marriage, and they had enough of you, they will create flimsy excuses for divorce. I happened to be a victim of such people. In fact, I almost funded our marriage, secured where we will stay, yet the foolish guy messed up and asked me to go.
That was not your first marriage. Do you know why the first one failed?
My life is a little in a shambles and I am trying to re-organise myself. Please let us not go so deep into my past for the sake of those that are already showing interest in me. You know, media men can easily build somebody and also destroy the person so fast. I am now part of my sister’s NGO, I am doing fine; thank God, I am only 28years old; I am still pretty and lost only little among what I possess as a woman.
So, I will return fully to acting and tell my fans that they will start seeing new Maryam Isah, fully mature and full of life.
As you know, my sister and her husband Sani Danja, are among those that convinced me to join Kannywood. I am proud of her because people have this notion that Kannywood actresses don’t make success of their marriages but my sister has proved them wrong by making success of her marriage.
Unfortunately, I did all my best for my marriage to succeed, on two occasions that I was married.
But, how did you come to be married to a man you did not study well?
I met a guy who claimed that he sincerely loved me and that given the chance, he can make the sun to rise from the west and set in the east, in fact, he told me that if I can follow him to any nearby zoo, he can kill a lion to prove to me that he loved me, not knowing that the guy is nobody but a compound fool and a liar and today, Maryam Isah is back on the street as a divorcee, very painful and disheartening.
I spent all my savings during our wedding to make sure that the wedding was very colourful. Almost all my colleagues in Kannywood attended my wedding.
If I look at the pictures of my wedding, I used to feel like taking the guy to court, but the happiest part of it is that I am a Muslim, I am healthy and can still go back to acting, go back to school or get another God-fearing man to marry. So, you see if life begins at 40, Maryam Isah is just 28.
How has it been in the industry?
Well, like I said my brother-in-law Sani Danja is a successful actor, producer and business man. Just like my half-sister has also played prominent roles in Kannywood before she got married, her children are also already acting. So, when I joined the industry about a year ago before my marriage, I did not find it difficult to succeed.
Already I have several films to my credit, now we are shooting one film Kukan Kurciya, it is a series and one of its kind in Kannywood. It is being produced by Chief Executive of Rite Time Multimedia, Sani Katsina, and I think it is the one that will be very challenging.
I have featured in other successful films as lead actress and honestly am very grateful to the producers, directors and my colleagues.
Who is your favourite actor or actress?
My favourite actress is Maryam Isah. The truth is that Kannywood is growing. We now have very good actors and actresses in the industry, before people look at the industry as where one can come and play drama or mess himself up.
But what we have today is a decent industry where one can make good money, become popular, visit several places, settle down and have children.
In every profession you will get bad eggs and good people, here in Kannywood am happy to be part of the industry.
Wherever I go people used to give me warm reception, because I mind my business and appeared in decent films that do not attract any scandal to my name.
So, I can even marry from Kannywood, if that is the wish of God. I can also allow my children to join the industry because what matters is the way one wants to be in life. If you want to be useful, you will be; if you want to be useless, you will be.
So, if a lady is complaining of any harassment she must be the one that created the opportunity for such to happen.
What would you say was your saddest and happiest moments in Kannywood?
Of course, I have several good news to tell because Kannywood made me what I am, and the saddest moments include when we lost people like Aisha Dan Kano, Rabilu Musa Ibro, people that one was opportune to work with. So, when you hear that they are no more, of course, you will feel sad.
So, there are some things that happened which made me sad, as for happy moments, whenever I meet people and they tell me that am a very good actress I feel happy, and when am with my colleagues and hear them talking good of me I am happy.