Actresses now Instagram models, TV show hosts – Aduse-Poku

Kumawood actor Bernard Aduse-Poku has observed that majority of actresses and actors have turned themselves into social media models, TV show hosts due to low patronage of movies by watchers.

According to him, the movie industry is almost grinding to a halt as compared to the previous years where the industry boomed to the expectation of producers and actors.

Speaking with Austine Woode on Ultimate Showbiz, Mr Aduse-Poku feared that the Ghanaian movie industry will fold up in the next two to three years if measures are not put in place to revamp it.

He indicated that the country cannot boast of churning out twenty movies in 2017 saying the once vibrant industry has lost its value.

Mr Aduse-Poku stated that investors are not able to recoup monies invested in movie production, hence have cut down on the number of movies produced yearly.

‘I don’t know the state in which the Ghanaian movie industry is in now, it’s nothing good to write home about, I mean its in a state where you could use a word such as unfortunate to qualify it. It’s in a very unfortunate situation right now and hence the reason most of these big stars are turning themselves into TV show hosts, radio show hosts, Instagram models, social media models and what have you, you know, the industry is almost grinding to a halt, because if nothing is done in the next two to three years, there will be no Ghanaian movie in Ghana,’ he asserted.

The Ghanaian actor discounted claims that people have stopped patronising Ghanaian movies due to poor quality.

According to him, there’s nothing like average movie production adding that it depends on the scale of production as money is heavily pumped into the production.

‘I do not agree with people who think the quality has gone down, blah blah… It’s not about the quality, right now there’s a paradigm shift, back in the days they produce their movies, get a marketer, go and manufacture the CDs, go to the market and sell, that was the order of the day, but now it has gone beyond that, now there is social media,’ he said.

He described some of the film makers as ‘greedy’ for refusing to educate their colleagues on the new trends of marketing movies.

Mr Aduse-Poku said majority of Ghanaian film makers lack the marketing skills to promote their movies blasting them for not being abreast with time.

‘There are so many platforms and our people are not taking advantage of it and then the few ones, to me, are greedy, greedy in the sense that when they saw the light and realized that this is how it should be done, so like you stay in touch with current trends they should have like in a way organized some sort of fora or seminars for the others to know the current trends in marketing movies or in even the way you go about doing movies, thinking that we are in our own corner doing our own thing, whiles the others kept doing the old style which have faded out,’ the Radio personality pointed out.

He called on the Akufo-Addo’s government and industry players to support the entertainment and creative arts industry.

‘Movie making is not a joke, it’s about money, you could have all the ideas in the World and have all the technical know-how in the World but if you don’t have the money forget it,’ he stated.