Ghanaian actor Mr. Beautiful has revealed that his former colleague, Agya Koo, once harbored a deep-seated dislike for him.
According to Mr. Beautiful, Agya Koo saw him as a threat to his dominance in the Kumawood film industry at the time.
“Truth is, Agya Koo made local movies popular because of his soaring popularity at the time. When Santo died, Agya Koo filled the void. I love Agya Koo, but the truth is that when Agya Koo became popular, he wanted to be the only one in the limelight.
“To the extent that Agya Koo could put a production on hold when he was traveling outside the country. If you ignored the directive, he would blacklist that producer. Producers were gravely concerned about his attitude, so fortunately, Miracle Films came for me and paired me with him for my first movie.
“Besides, Agya Koo and I had known each other during the concert party days, and at the time, he was happy to see me on the set of Sika Nibre, featuring McBrown and Agya Koo. That movie was a hit.
“We had about three or four movies to shoot together, but he refused to shoot and only agreed on the condition that I was dropped from the cast. We even had to change a storyline for one movie. Some of the producers were concerned about his attitude, but it went on and on.”
Mr. Beautiful also said that Agya Koo deliberately avoided being cast alongside him as a lead character due to fears of being overshadowed.
“Agya Koo didn’t want to be cast alongside me as a lead character because he knew I would ride on his wings, and that was a smart move because he didn’t want me to become big like himself, to reduce his influence and monopoly at the time.
“The producers told me that Agya Koo had refused to shoot with me because he felt threatened by me.”
To avoid Agya Koo treating Akrobeto similarly when he later joined Kumawood after returning from Belgium, Miracle Films adopted a strategy of making Akrobeto wash Agya Koo’s cars so the two could build a strong bond.
“There’s no doubt Agya Koo is very talented, but this particular character of his forced the producers to devise a strategy to take him out. It got to a point that nobody wanted to use him,” Mr. Beautiful added.