When Zikoko released My Body, God’s Temple in July 2025 as part of its Zikoko Life trilogy, we introduced you to Omasilu and Zion, a newlywed couple battling sexual dysfunction. Nearly a year later, Andrew Bunting and Uzoamaka Power return to your screens in May 2026 in Call of My Life—this time as Eli and Soluchi. Different characters, same chemistry. “I’d love to think Uzo and I have that thing,” Andrew says. “Like Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne or Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. When you see them on screen, you know that there’s going to be a spark.” Andrew says.
But this familiar pairing isn’t the only reason he decided to star in Call of My Life. From Water and Garri (2024) to Love Lockdown (2025), Andrew has built a pattern of playing emotionally burdened characters who just always happen to be romantically involved with someone else. For him, the romance is rarely the point of focus. “I take an interest in a script because I see something about the character besides the romance that would be nice to bring out,” he says. Since romance is already baked into the script, he pays more attention to “why we meet the character as they are”.
Call of My Life is yet another romance, but this time, Andrew is playing a different kind of love interest. Eli is “not deeply-tortured. He is not out for revenge or to sabotage anyone. He’s just a kind-hearted person, and the highest stake in his life is this budding romance. He is a breath of fresh air from all the sadness,” Andrew explains.
In this rom-com, Eli finds love over a phone call with Soluchi (Uzoamaka Power), a call-centre agent fresh off a heartbreak. “On its own, it sounds a bit outrageous and far-fetched that someone hears your voice, and they become so interested in you that they would want to get to know you,” Andrew admits. “But these things happen in real life; people have met in crazier, more magical ways,” he tells Zikoko.
To him, this love story is a modern fairytale. It’s a Cinderella story without the evil step-sisters. Art imitates real life, and while it is important to tell the sad and more familiar stories, “there are relationships that you see, and you wonder how all of it is happening when the Naira is falling, and there’s no electricity. These people are living a fantasy in real life, right in front of you.”
This rom-com also features Kalu (Zubby Micheal), Soluchi’s ex, whose constant inattentiveness is arguably more familiar to the Nigerian dating scene. Unlike in many romance movies, Kalu is not the demonic ex. “Nobody is the villain in this story; these are real people with perfectly understandable reasons why they act the way that they do. It’s about a woman choosing a person who makes her soul happy.”
As new as it sounds, Call of My Life isn’t Nollywood’s first attempt at a phone-based romance. In Kunle Afolayan’s Phone Swap (2012), a fashion designer and an arrogant businessman accidentally switch phones at the airport and must fix the error through a series of chaotic phone calls that develop into a long-distance romance. Even at this, the similarities between the two films are almost entirely limited to phones and romance. Andrew says Call of My Life picks up on a ‘niche quirkiness’. “We didn’t necessarily do anything differently. We just told a story that perhaps laid to rest some common cinema tropes in this part of the world. We focused on bits and pieces of love stories that usually don’t get told.”
He hopes watching Call of My Life will inspire more people to feel freer in their relationships. “There’s a new trend of nonchalant behaviour in relationships these days, and I’d like people to come away with feeling like it’s not bad to be cringey with your partner. Double text, call first and don’t express your feelings only when you’re in a heated argument. Just let it be out there. It helps.”
Next Read: Uzoamaka Power Made Call of My Life for Everyone Who Has Ever Loved Too Much
