The Future Awards Winners Spotlight: Tonto Dikeh (Actor of the Year 2012)

 

by SK Johnson

Actress, singer, controversy magnet, and alleged NDLEA fugitive, Tonto Dikeh was the cause of much chatter right from the minute her name was announced as one of the nominees in the Actor Of The Year category of the 2012 edition of The Future Awards. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, though, given her legion of adoring fans (one only has to take a peek at her Twitter to get a sense of just how adoring they are) who no doubt spent hours on end voting to ensure her nomination and eventual win.

The controversy continued when Tonto sent out a curiously worded tweet (though, to be honest, all of her tweets – and actions, really – can be described as ‘curious’) about her nomination.

Itz Another nomination(THE FUTURE AWARDZ)*Hopefully d nolywood old desperate Cargo'z will not. Pay Engr 2increaze their votez diz time#SHAME
— TONTO W.C DIKEH (@TONTOLET) July 19, 2012

Many viewed this to be a jab at Rita Dominic, prompting Tonto to tweet an apology:

@ritaUdominic Ma I'm terribly sorry 4d rumourz goin on*I pray u understand d LUV n Respect I ve 4U**I'll nvr dizrezpect U(dead. Or alive)
— TONTO W.C DIKEH (@TONTOLET) July 20, 2012

Tonto Dikeh got her start in the industry as part of the reality show The Next Movie Star, from which she emerged as the first runner up. Her second film role, Holy Cross, is, in her opinion, responsible for catapulting her into the limelight. She quickly joined film project after film project, but remained in the B-list for years, till the release of Dirty Secrets in 2010. The movie might not have been particularly better than the multitude of others which are churned out daily, but it delivered lots of on-screen nudity and sex, the kind of which Nollywood audiences had not seen since Eucharia Anunobi’s legendary scenes in 1996′s infamous Glamour Girls 2.

Since then, Ms. Dikeh has, of course, added scores of movies to her catalogue, but also launched a widely criticized (but praised – by her numerous fans) music career, with her singles “Hi” and “Itz Ova” rumoured to have  broken download records in Nigerian cyberspace.

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