After allegations by Ghanaian actor
Clement Bonney often known as Mr. Beautiful of being sidelined by movie
producers in the Ashanti Region for openly displaying his political
colours and rallying behind the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Movie
producer and marketer Paul Gee has confirmed the allegations and stated
the actor is no more marketable in the Ashanti Region perhaps for
reasons he is yet to establish and cannot tell if it is due the
difference in political orientation.
Paul Gee who spoke in an
interview with Charles Asare on the Angel Entertainment Show on Sunday
disclosed saying “although Mr. Beautiful is a great actor, he is not
marketable and I would not cast him for a movie since most of the target
audience would no longer buy movies that had him starred”.
Although
Mr. Beautiful’s accusations had somehow been substantiated by Paul Gee
who cast him for one of his popular movies “Ama Ghana” in 2009.
Others
believe his dwindling career is not as a result of his political
orientation but as a result of other great actors such as Agya Koo,
Nkansah Liwin and Kwaku Manu who are now favourites of the people and
can equally play his roles.
The great question which remains to be answered is all Kumasi based producers and movie watchers from the NPP?
Despite incessant calls and outcry by
many film critics in Ghana condemning movies produced from Kumasi that
have often been tagged “Kumawood”, award winning Ghanaian movie producer
and CEO of Sparrow Productions, Shirley Frimpong Manso has against all
odds commended such movies and acknowledged the pivotal role these
movies played in ensuring the interests and hope of a “movie industry”
existed.
Speaking on New Day on TV3, producer of award winning
movies A Sting in a Tale, 6 Hours To Christmas, The Perfect Picture,
Adams Apples, Scorned disclosed although there were a lot of challenges,
Kumawood movies kept the movie market going at a tough moment when the
Ghanaian market was almost nonexistent.
She stated it would be
unfortunate and unfair for anyone to condemn such movies as such
productions are made out of individual efforts with no institutional
interventions.
“It’s like going to Makola market and telling
somebody who’s put up his store that your market is not looking good. We
could only suggest positively”
As a way forward for movie
makers, Shirley believed it would be in the interest of the government
of Ghana to support the industry as anything portrayed goes a long way
to sell Ghana.
She also asked the government to put in place the
right structures before passing and implementing the Film law which has
been laid before parliament and also for interventions to aid the film
industry only if it existed.
Highlife living legend and show
stopper Daniel Amakyi Dede aka “Seeeeerious” has denied allegations that
he was drunk or high before he got on stage to perform at the just
ended “Black and White” concert which took place at the Accra
International Conference Centre on Friday December 13, 2013.
After
the well-produced and well organized event, there were comments from
most people who attended the show that the known great performer was not
his usual-self on stage as he kept staggering and looking very unstable
during his much anticipated performance.
Speaking on Peace FM’s
“Entertainment Review” Abrantie wondered why he would get drunk and
come on stage “Oh! No not at all. How can I get drunk to perform on a
show?
Asked whether he thought he performed well on stage, he
said “Well for me, I think I did okay...You know the show was not my
show because there were other artistes on the bill so I couldn't perform
more hours as I'm used to performing on my own show...but the little I
did I think it was alright”, Amakyi Dede emphasized.
A report in
Monday December 16 2013 edition of Graphic Showbiz with the headline
“Amakyi Dede slips badly”, best captures his performance. In the report,
Editor of the paper Nanabenyin Dadson writes “First timers at an Amakye
Dede live concert must have walked away from the Accra International
Conference Centre last Friday with a poor impression of the veteran
highlife musician.
For such a well-organized and well-publicized
Black & White concert at which Amakye Dede was considered to be the
star performer, the “Abrantie”, as he is fondly called, slipped badly.
He
was straining a bit too hard, he was missing his cues with the band,
and he spoke too much and could hardly stay on his feet. This was hardly
vintage Amakye Dede”.
Meanwhile African Dancehall King Samini
who was one of the two headline artistes, gave yet another good account
of himself on stage taking over the show as always with great
interaction with the audience and his random freestyle performance with
whatever was going on in the auditorium. He managed to keep the crowd on
their feet dancing all through.
Castro De Destroyer also
thrilled the appreciable crowd with his performance playing with live
band like a pro. Legendary George Jahraa and young Kwabena Akwaboah were
simply great. Guru of Lapaz Toyota fame did not quite have a good
evening going off key and screaming unnecessarily.
The event was put together by Events Factory.
Award-winning broadcaster, Gifty Anti
has ended her long stay at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation/ Ghana
Television (GTV). According to sources, she tendered in her resignation
letter this week and she is expected to leave GTV at the end of the
month.
During her stay at GTV, she became of the of the most known faces on Ghanaian television, presenting news and other programmes.
The
reasons for her resignation are not immediately known but it is
believed that its in the direction of change in new advancements in her
career life.
Her award-winning show, The Stand Point, will continue to show on GTV.
Ghana’s number one comedian, Benson
Nana Yaw Oduro Boateng, popularly known as Funny Face and Anita Erskine
presented an ‘odd couple’ as they hosted Vodafone Ghana’s launch of
‘Red’, which is Ghana’s first range of weekly and monthly integrated
bundles that offer subscribers various incentives and opportunities.
Funny Face and Anita Erskine did a splendid job at Vodafone’s “Red” launch, which was a night of ‘red’ pageantry.
Funny
Face made it obvious from the start of the programme that he was in a
job search as Entertainment Director for Vodafone Ghana. He actually
announced a name change from Funny Face to Funny Red, if that would make
his job search at Vodafone (with a brand colour of red) easier.
The
ace comedian spiced the night’s event with jokes, and his co-master of
ceremony, Anita Erskine, could not help but at certain stages match him
in equal measure with light hearted comments.
Funny talked about
no longer being able to maintain his US$ 3000 hair cut sponsored by his
footballer friends because they are away playing football in the
European leagues, with the stylish hair falling off like chicken
feathers, whilst he waits for his footballer friends to come back to
Town to help fund the maintenance of his hair.
At the red launch,
the Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone, Haris Broumidis said the “Red”
is a new product by the company to give comfort to suffering Ghanaians
who are dissatisfied with services provided by other communication
operators.
He said “consumers in Ghana have suffered the
inconvenience of carrying multiple SIM cards for too long. This is
because they have not found the value they deserve from one mobile
operator. We have introduced red to help put an end to the hassle and
nuisance of carrying multiple SIM cards”.
The new range of weekly
and monthly integrated bundles includes four unique plans: ‘Red Life
Weekly’ at GH¢ 5 per week, ‘Red Rush’ at GH¢ 20 per month, ‘Red Hot’ at
GH¢ 50 per month, and ‘Red Classic’ at GH¢ 100 per month.
The
‘Red Life’ is an offer that allows customers to enjoy 300 free minutes
to call any Vodafone number, 30 free minutes to other networks, 5 free
minutes to call USA, Canada and UK Fixed lines, 100 MB browsing
allowance and 100 free SMS to any network.
The ‘Red Rush’ allow
customers to enjoy 1000 free minutes to any Vodafone number, 130 free
minutes to call any other local networks, 15 free minutes to call USA,
Canada and UK Fixed lines, 400 MB internet allowance and 100 free SMS to
any local line.
The Red Hot Plan allow customers to enjoy 2000
free minutes to call any Vodafone number, 300 free minutes for calls to
other local networks, 50 free minutes to USA, Canada and UK Fixed lines,
1 GB internet allowance and 200 free SMS to any local network.
The
‘Red Classic’ plan offers customers 5000 free minutes to call any
Vodafone number, 700 free minutes to call other local networks, 100 free
minutes to call USA, Canada and UK Fixed lines, 2.5 GB internet
allowance and 200 free SMS to any local network.
Ghana’s handsome actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, has revealed his intention to run for presidency in the near future.
In
an exclusive interview with this reporter, the actor stated that the
line of businesses he has so far is just a tip of the iceberg for him.
“I
have so many dreams, so I just wait for an opportunity.” He stated and
revealed that his ultimate dream is to become the president of the state
in about 20 years time.
The entrepreneur who seems to have a
sharp eye for business ideas added that his next move will be to own a
plane and operate an airline.
“After Maselo Court, which is yet
to be opened, I want to be a pilot, in other words, want to own my plane
and airline.” He stated. This will add up to his already existing
clothing line, hair products, film school, music recording studio and
yet to be officially opened hotel.
In his final words, the
philanthropist admonished his colleague celebrities to give to charity,
“even if you start with ?300.00 you can touch the lives of so many
people. I want to entreat not just celebrities but every Ghanaian to
give to charity, even if it is just a penny.
Well, if the
interesting history of people called John being Presidents of Ghana
since the time of Jerry John Rawlings, is anything to go by then Mr.
Dumelo surely stands a chance.
One of Ghana’s celebrated actors, Mr.
Beautiful says several movie producers especially the Kumai-based ones
have decided not to feature him in their movies because he campaigned
for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the 2012 presidential
elections.
The star actor, known in private life as Clement
Bonney, says the fact that he mounted the party’s campaign platforms to
endorse the candidature of John Mahama has made Kumasi based movie
producers treat him as an outcast.
Ever since he made that move,
Mr. Beautiful said he has not had a single role to play in any of the
local movies, especially those produced in the Twi language.
In
an interview with “News-One”, an obviously distraught Mr. Beautiful, as
he is popularly known and called by most Ghanaians, expressed serious
reservations about the fact that producers in the local movie industry,
especially those in the Ashanti region have decided not to feature him
in any of their movies. This, he said was because they tagged him as a
member of the NDC for which reason they don’t want to give him roles to
play. Ashanti region is the stronghold of the opposition New Patriotic
Party (NPP). “They are not calling because they say the movies are
bought in Kumasi, Koforidua and Sunyani so when they feature me in their
movies and they take it to the market, the people say I’m NDC so they
won’t buy and that is why they are not calling me”, he narrated.
According
to him, “a movie producer called Paul Gee called me personally and told
me that this is what is going on and it is true… I don’t remember the
last time I even shot a movie in Kumasi.”
Concern
Me per
say I don’t have any problem because the risk I took was very risky,
part of which is the fact that nobody calls me to feature in their
movies because they say I am an NDC”, he said, whiles asking
rhetorically” why is it that those who did a similar thing for the NPP
and Akufo Addo then were not told something like this; because they hate
the NDC.”
He went ahead to ask “when Lumba and lots of musicians
including Kwabena Kwabena, Ampong, Wutah declared their stands for Nana
Addo four years ago, nobody said anything bad about it, but if you are a
musician or an actor and an NDC, you become an enemy to Kumasi people
and Ashantes. Why should it be like that?”
For now, Mr. Beautiful
says he was managing the few roles that he had been handed by some movie
producers in Accra to survive, hoping to launch a movie in the next
couple of weeks.
In all these, he expressed extreme gratitude to
President Mahama for the support he has been extending to him since
according to him, he (Mahama) appreciates the risk he (Mr. Beautiful)
took in declaring an open support for his candidature and for which
reason he goes to him as and when need be for assistance.
