Actress and producer, Matilda Asare has denied claims that movies churned from the Kumasi divide of the movie industry- known collectively as Kumawood killed the English movie industry (Ghallywood) in Ghana.
Matilda told Graphic Showbiz that Ghallywood collapsed on its own because it had a weak structure with no identity as they heavily depended on foreign influence. ‘I don’t agree with those saying Kumawood collapsed Ghallywood. In Kumawood, we write stories about our culture and traditions, Ghallywood copies Nigerian and other foreign cultures.
She continued; ‘We use our local lifestyle but Ghallywood imitates others, even their costumes and storylines are foreign. Kumawood may sometimes fall short when it comes to technical ability but it is Ghallywood that has failed the industry. They could be doing movies on the various regions of Ghana and their cultures instead of doing foreign stuff.’
Asked how she feels when Kumawood actors are described as illiterates, light-skinned actress retorted, ‘I am not bothered one bit about such comments. We do local movies and we need to be local. There is nothing wrong with doing movies in our local dialect.’
On how the movie industry can bounce back, Matilda said, ‘When I joined the industry about 15 years ago, it wasn’t like this. Back then, we used to produce movies on CDs for sale globally. That has changed; nobody buys CDs any longer.
Our leaders would have to adapt to the change; when time changes, you also change. The coronavirus disease has also destroyed things, there is no doubt about that. I was scheduled to premiere my latest movie, Heroes of Africa on April 11 but I had to postpone it because of the pandemic. Again, there were no laws to guide the industry and piracy is killing us. Now that the National Film Authority has been put in place, it has to perform its role effectively so that we can have our Film Bill in place,’ she said.
