Popular filmmaker and Chief Executive Officer of KOFAS Media, Kofi Asamoah, has revealed the secret behind his success, in the Ghanaian movie industry which is seen as currently on its knees by many movie stars and stakeholders in the movie industry.
Speaking in an interview with Akwasi Agyekum Gyimah, host of the Drive programme – Sunset Beach, on Beach 105.5 FM he said, what has done the trick for him is “seeing filmmaking as a business, and not just an art.”
“Art makes no sense if there’s no business to it”, he said.
He revealed that, at the moment, the appealing factor working in his favour is comedy.
“Comedy sells…we will give them comedy until they say they don’t want it anymore, they want horror”.
According to him, giving the people what they want is all it takes, i.e. the cast, the story, the genre.
Reacting to the controversy that surrounded his “John & John” movie which was widely claimed to have been an adaptation of “Skeem”, a South African movie which was directed by South African filmmaker, Timothy Greene, Kofi said he wasn’t surprised because naturally, most “Ghanaians are vindictive and don’t accept things of their own.”
Regarding the reportage given the issue by a section of the media, Kofi Asamoah said, although “the media was not fair”, he understood their plight because, “the media were just doing their job in order to get traffic”.
He added that, most Ghanaians’ tendency to condemn and criticize without diligently ascertaining facts is very, “disheartening”.
According to him, however, he was not entirely perturbed because he saw the entire hullabaloo as an indication that he “was doing well, and the world was watching.”
Kofi Asamoah further stated the importance for one to resolve to stay focused in such times.
Commenting on the inability of The Ghana Foreign Language Oscar Selection Committee to select any Ghanaian movie to be sent for nominations at next year’s Oscars, the KOFAS Media C.E.O. said he wasn’t surprised considering the fact that this is the first time Ghana decided to send a nomination to the Oscars.
He also noted that, the budget with which Ghanaian movies are produced also made it very difficult to meet the criteria required by the Oscars.
A total of 92 countries from around the world have successfully submitted a film each, to be considered for the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Egypt, Kenya , Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia make up seven countries from the African continent that have also successfully made the list.
Later this year, the number will be whittled down to nine, and then a shortlist of five will be selected early next year.
~ Godwin Kpade
