Entertainment of Monday, 4 June 2018

Source: kasapafmonline.com

Kumawood Movie industry is dead – Prince David Osei

Ghanaian actor, Prince David Osei Ghanaian actor, Prince David Osei

Actor Prince David Osei has said the local movie industry, Kumawood, is dead.

Speaking on Hitz FM on Monday, the actor disclosed that, stakeholders in the Kumawood sector have refused to be aligned with modernity with regards to going digital.

“There are great movies from the English industry so I don’t see where the problem is here. If the Kumawood people are saying someone was going to invade their space, from where I stand right now, it looks like Kumasi Movie industry is DEAD… That’s the truth.

“Producers call me and say, they are unable to sell one thousand (1,000) DVD copies and the reason why this is happening is not because someone is trying to invade in anybody’s space but the truth is that the world is moving, things are changing and they need to speed up. Right now, nobody buys DVD, we live in a digital world where people watch movies online, you need to get a platform where people can view your movies. It’s no longer getting guys in traffic to sell DVDs. It’s all about marketing.” Osei said on Hitz FM

Prince David Osei, known for his ‘bad’ boy roles in movie added that previously the Kumawood industry was doing great but in recent times the Glamour movie industry has ascended at a fast pace.

According to him, the Glamour Movie sector is currently doing more movies on societal issues and comedy since movie freaks have complained about same love and drama story lines from the English speaking producers.

“People talk about the English speaking movies going down but it will amaze you to know that the English Movie industry has really picked up in a very fast pace. You’ve no idea of the kind of movies coming out this year. Personally, when I got back to Ghana in March, I’ve shot about six movies and I keep shooting.

“Maybe story-wise, people have become fed-up with the normal insults and they want different storylines and that is what happened to our English Movies, we lost it when we started telling just the love stories but right now we’ve moved on. We are tackling societal issues and doing more comedy movies. People are tired of serious drama and love movies.

“There’s a transition now with the English Movies and that is what the Kumawood people need to do. Obviously if you keep serving people the same meal every time, at the point they get tired enjoying same meal everyday. It’s not like someone wants to invade the space of others. When the English movies was down, everyone was praising the Kumawood industry because they kept the forte but right now where are the Kumawood movies.” Prince David Osei added.

Asked if there is no ‘beef’ between the Kumawood and Ghallywood industry, Prince David said “It’s perception but personally from my point of view, there’s nothing like that and we’ve been working together. Just that people have tagged the kind of movie to be Kumawood and ours to be the English speaking movies and that’s just the difference but there’s nothing like rivalry between the two industries.

“We’ve been doing collaborations together. Nana Ama McBrown seems to be one of the top superstars coming from Kumasi. She’s been doing movies with everyone. She did ‘Side Chic Gang’ with Lydia Forson and Sika Osei. I’ve done movies with Lil Win, Kwaku Manu and Van Vicker, Juliet Ibrahim have all done movies with most of the Kumawood stars.”

Prince David Osei joined the Ghana music industry popularly called Ghallywood in 2005 and came to limelight after starring in the block buster movie “Fortune Island”.

Ever since then Prince David Osei has featured in more than 100 Ghanaian and Nollywood movies which include Fortune Island, Last night, Hero, Forbidden fruit and so on.