Entertainment of Saturday, 7 June 2014

Source: The Alhajj

I’ll forever remain NDC - Mr Beautiful

After allegations early this year that he has been sidelined by movie producers in the Ashanti region for openly displaying his political colors and rallying behind the National Democratic Congress in the 2012 elections, the Fanti speaking witty actor, Clement Bonney, says his support for the ruling party will remain unshaken.

Describing movie producers who have refused to engage his services because of his political affiliation as “immature”, Mr Beautiful as he is affectionately called, stated that political differences should not bring about enmity between people.

Reacting to a texter’s question to an entertainment program on ETV over the weekend on why he joined politics, the audacious actor wondered why celebrities who openly mounted campaign platforms and compose songs for the New Patriotic Party’s 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate were not given the demeaning same treatment.

“Four years ago celebrities in this country supported Nana Akufo-Addo, but no one raised concern about their involvement in politics, so why the fuss over mine. I can assure you that I’ll forever remain NDC and support President Mahama 1000 times,” Mr Beautiful vowed.

Adding “anybody who thinks that way is immature. Our political affiliations should not make us enemies…I will continue to support President Mahama and NDC.”

Asked about why he speaks Fanti in movies when most of the productions are done in the Ashanti region and the scripts written in Asante Twi, the well-known local actor retorted that he feels proud holding the flag of his mother region, the Central region.

“I have received calls from ‘big men’ and respected people of the Fanti land including chiefs for speaking my native Fanti in all my movies. I can speak very good Ashanti Twi, but I won’t use it for movies. I’m proud of my language and if a producer gives me a script in Asante Twi I’ll reject it. My people back home have been praising me for promoting the language,” he said.

Touching on why movie production has been concentrated in the Ashanti region and why other regions cannot do their own production, Mr Beautiful, in an apparent swipe at Ghana’s populous region, stated that the Ashanti dialect permits the use foul languages hence it is easy to use it for movie production.

“The Northern belt frowns on the use of foul language, it is the same in the Volta and the Southern coastal belt…, those part of the country do not allow it either but those at the middle belt of the country consider the use of foul language as normal, so it is easy to produce movie in that part of the country because you have the liberty to say all the bad things,” he explained.

According to him the assertion that movies in the local dialect have no future is true, explaining that “the movies are full of insults and anything made of insults certainly has no future. That is how the language is structured…it is full of insults.”