Ghanaian actor, Clement Bonney, widely known as Mr. Beautiful, has disclosed why Ghana’s local-oriented movie industry, Kumawood, is struggling to succeed.
Speaking to Joy Prime’s Roselyn Felli in a recent interview on Changes show, the actor stated that the inclusion of insults into the characters’ scripts is the major cause of the problem.
He said that when he noticed the issue, he raised a concern and tried to advise the producers and other industry players but was ignored.
“I had little problems with Kumawood people because I used to speak the Fante language and blend with English. I told them that in Kumasi, particular insults that are considered normal to the people cannot be applied to those in the Greater Accra and Coastal regions; there are big insults. So, I told them that the way we’re packaging insults and selling them to the world will affect us, so we should be careful. But they ignored,” he stated.
According to him, many Ghanaians living abroad prevented their children from watching Kumawood movies, so they would not imitate the insulting characters depicted on television. He said in the long run, this affected the industry because these individuals also influenced foreigners to watch the movies.
Mr. Beautiful added that he was required to speak only in Twi for some of the movies he was cast in, but he refused and lost those roles.
In today’s world of rapid technological advancement, all countries are making efforts to adapt and develop various sectors, including film.
However, the actor indicated that Ghanaian movie experts failed to embrace this ideology, causing the industry to lag behind.
“When the whites were migrating to digital marketing, we were still at parts 1 and 2. When we realized it, we were already archaic. That has also affected us big time,” he told Roselyn Felli.
Source: Joan Nyaame
