There is no stopping and no rest for Serbian actor Slobodan Boda Ninković, even when the whole world stopped because of the coronavirus. And all this is not motivated by profit, but stems from the fact that, as he admits, he likes to play. So last year he played with anything and everything and dealt with several diverse projects. For someone who announced his retirement, he was extremely hard-working and hard-working. That's how he contacted "Vijesti" during a recording.
"I am currently working on two series - 'Radio Mileva' is a sitcom for MTS, and I started working on the other with Nikola Pejaković in Banja Luka, a comedy series 'Advokado'", he revealed at the beginning of the conversation. But that's not all. In addition, at the end of last year, he released an album of children's songs, "Čudne reči", and he also worked on the return of his punk group, which was formed four decades ago. He talked about all this for "Vijesti".
When did you start working on the mentioned projects and how is it going so far?
I've been doing this "Radio Mileva" for a month and a half, and I started with Nikola ten days ago, had a few days in Banja Luka, and then I have a continuation of the recording at the end of January, from the 25th onwards.
Can you tell us what your roles are there?
In this sitcom "Radio Mileva", Bane Zeremski and I are a couple of older "smekkers" who spend time in that city cafe and who are actually on duty and commentators and people who follow the situation as it develops. It's a series of short, beautiful, effective, humorous situations, so we enjoy, play. It's just a nice distraction.
And as for Pejaković's project, it is a bit more complex, in his own way twisted, witty, but often darkly humorous. I play six roles, since within the whole situation where women take the lead, there is some family quiz and then the guests are various people from the various milieu I play - from academics to farmers. Witty, also fun and I say, given Nikola and his boundless talent, twisted.
Is it particularly fun for you to play six roles, how complicated is it to distinguish between them?
Differences are made easily because the characters are not intertwined, but one character is taken, then it ends, and then another one goes... But it's fun because it's challenging, it's nice to play. So that the imagination is really let loose and the person enjoys it.
Are we missing more of that comedic material in this current flood of dark crime thrillers?
I don't know what to say about that. There are indeed several designed and well-implemented ones, but their number is smaller. I don't know why we can't break away from it, because life is, life would have to try to overcome those situations that unfortunately surround us. But it's not just life. Life is what we do, what we try to fix, first of all in relation to our closest ones and that's it.
Why do you think that happens, where does this obsession with that genre and such stories come from, or does everyone think they have found the formula for success?
Huh! Well, I don't know, but I think that the audience is getting a little tired, actually a little more tired, because things are repeated a lot. And secondly, you know what, when you do something, it should be something that can give hope above all. There must be some optimism here, because if we literally only convey what is happening around us, and often we also build on it with some somewhat sick thoughts about it or a lecture, in the sense that it is so - so what are we going to do, that is not good. Optimism must exist and when it dies, by God, we don't write very well.
Jokes have already started about that, that the next production will be called "Another Serbian crime series"?
That's right, you're right. But well, let's hope that it is a moment, which unfortunately lasts, but that it is a moment. When people get tired, they will try something else.
On the other hand, Goran Bogdan recently assessed that Serbian cinematography is experiencing a renaissance, both in terms of the expansion of series and films. How do you rate the past year in that regard?
If we look at the most basic, of course it is good that it is being done and even unrealistically much is being done. But I'm not quite sure that the main motive here is quality, but I think that considering the number of channels there is a need to fill the program and to do some things that way. Quantity can certainly lead to an increase in quality, that's how it should be, but it also implies thinking, inventing, designing, so then we can expect something.
I say, it is good that a large number of people are engaged, they are working, but I think that the problem of production in our country is still very undefined. Of course, you have to live, that's the only truth, and people often accept jobs that they probably wouldn't have if the situation were a little different, but that's just the way it is, so in order to provide an even decent life, people agree to some things and then neglect the others. which is the purpose of our work, which is to try to raise the level, because we should still be people who influence the improvement of the quality of life through our engagement.
How did you live the year marked by the corona virus, how did it all affect you?
From the very beginning, I have had my own private opinion in relation to all these events, and I think that it is now even more clear that things were provoked in a certain way. I tried to think a little, which does not mean that I am right, to look at the facts from the left and the right, so I came to the conclusion that by simply accepting everything that is served to us, a person can fall into a serious problem. First of all, psychologically, and that happens with a large number of people who really fall into depression and everything else. I tried to use my free time, I've actually been doing it my whole life, to try to create some free time.
What I can point out is that this corona was in a certain way even useful, because by bringing about a certain slowing down, stopping of life, it gave people the opportunity to calm down a little, to think a little about what caused us all to get into a certain speed which is completely inexplicable and for which there is no real and justified reason.
We started neglecting the most important things, which are, above all, our family and our dearest friends, that we have less and less time for them. Not to mention ourselves. When we encounter a problem, we don't have time to think, to look at it realistically and to find a solution that is much more adequate than those quick, quick solutions that often lead to huge misunderstandings. I tried my best to use it to do some nice things, one of those nice things is this children's CD "Strange words" that my brother and my friend Jovica Tišma designed and recorded. That came out a month ago.
So I took the opportunity to fulfill my old wish, to complete a project that was 40 years old. Because I got into this business through music, in 79 I won the Zaječarska Gitariada with my group OPS and we were supposed to record a record, but then the four of us went to the army and nothing happened after that. Now we got together, of course with a slightly changed composition, we did the material, we recorded and when things have settled down, I think around the end of April, we will release our first album.
Is it a punk band?
We even called that whole project "pseudopunk group OPS". It is a kind of combination of theater and music, our lyrics are witty, engaged and we actually in the stage presentation, in addition to the dressing which is a little characteristic, we try to bring those humorous approaches closer to what we are singing about. It's hard for me to say, some people have heard the material, we're satisfied, we'll see when it comes out. The good thing is when a person is a bit older, then he loses that basic ambition that something must succeed.
I don't have any illusions about making a musical career, nor is it even possible today, especially in our country, but I will use every opportunity, and I think there will be, I hope at least, to meet the audience and see if what we are worked makes sense. Because it is material that has the zeitgeist of the second half of the 70s and 80s, it is a return to a live concert, there are no computers and the like. Even when we were recording, we rehearsed and played everything at once until we got a take that suits us, so it's about the desire that something that started to be lost, that started to be programmed, that cooled down quite a bit the basic motif of rock and music that must be alive, to bring it to life. We are trying, we want to and we are satisfied for now, and I hope people will recognize that.
Children are the best and most appreciative audience
How did the children's album that you released come about and what do you think is most important in the approach when working with children?
It's nothing new for me, I was lucky - I can freely say, that I started my professional acting life in the "Boško Buha" theater in Belgrade, and there I met and defined in a big way my motto for doing this work, which is play, I like to play. And secondly, I say again that I was lucky, because I worked for the youngest, and I can quite freely claim that it is the best and most appreciative audience if you are maximally engaged and maximally sincere. You get a hundred times more from them. And I also managed to see in a certain way that children, including young people of course, only need more attention. Let's pay attention to them, let's deal with them and that will surely lead to their better growth, maturation, formation, and that again gives a result for the future. This means a generation that will surely be able and know better how to set things up, to solve them, which means an improvement in life.
And this is not the first, this is our fourth album. It has 12 tracks, the 13th is a gift instrumental of a fairytale song. These are topics that help the youngest to solve some of their dilemmas, fears... There are songs about love and school, there are also some educational ones, about traffic and of course ecology, we have one song that is particularly dear to us and we already perform it at some meetings with children, and it is called "Selo". It came from our desire that children, especially city children, who in huge numbers did not have the opportunity to get to know the quality of life in the countryside, to bring it closer to them with a beautiful, witty song. So, despite these 64 years and a few more years, I haven't lost my enthusiasm, on the contrary, and my desire to meet them, because it's really a great pleasure. Their joy and energy is a great reward and it's something you can only dream of getting sometimes as a reward for your engagement.
Bonus video:
