Entertainment of Sunday, 12 May 2019

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Diamond Appiah to sue Despite Group

Diamond Appiah, Actress play videoDiamond Appiah, Actress

Ghanaian actress, Diamond Appiah has threatened to sue the Despite Group of Companies for backing out on its words after the company promised to settle her if she stops her movie from premiering.

Diamond Appiah in October 2017 produced a movie titled ‘Superstar’ which was ready to be premiered in March 2018. The movie featured the name of the CEO of Despite Group of Companies, Dr. Osei Kwame Despite and was alleged to be done to honour him.

Due to Despite’s name being used in the movie, management of Despite Group of Companies reached out to Diamond to cancel the movie and in return pay for the cost of production. This according to management is because Dr Osei Kwame Despite wasn’t happy his name, brand and company were used in the movie.

But speaking in an interview with De Don on Hitz FM’s “You Sey Weytin” Diamond Appiah debunked the allegations saying the movie had nothing to do with Despite although a character in the movie bore Despite’s name.

According to her, she only agreed to cancel the movie out of respect she had for Despite and not because the movie was about him.

But after a year of cancelling the movie, management of Despite Group of Companies have failed to fulfil its part of the bargain by paying her the cost of her movie production.

Narrating the incident she said “In October 2017, I shot a movie and the movie was ready to be premiered in March 2018. So like late January of last year I sent a one minute trailer of the move out; I posted it on my Whatsapp and shared it to my contacts and social media platform. So an hour or two later Fada Dickson who happened to be a contact on my Whatsapp called me that he’s watched the trailer and then he noticed that there’re some things that some people mentioned and Mr Osei Kwame Despite’s name”.

"And that there was another scene that Akrobeto said he’s now a rich man; Peace FM is now his so they’re not comfortable with that so he’ll plead with me to take those things off my social media handle. So due to the respect I had for them, I took the trailers from my social media handle and even asked those who have shared to take it down. So I went to see them and they said Despite is not comfortable with the movie coming out so they’ll pay me for whatever cost that I incurred in the production of the movie”.

She further added that Despite’s management claimed “their brand name was mentioned in the production and Mr. Despite’s name was mentioned in the production and that the intention was to tarnish his brand or image so they’re not going to settle me and that if I need anything in relation to my work and they’ll use their media platform to acquit me.

“After waiting for a year you come back to tell me this, meanwhile the movie I produced was a fiction. It’s not a true life story about Mr Despite or anything of that sort”, she added.