In just a week after the Ghana Film industry rebranded its name to Gollywood, hoping to change the industry to a better state, some veterans in the industry have raised concerns in respect to the name Gollywood.
Actor, David Dontoh and actress, Akorfa Edjeani Asiedu have both come out publicly to disclose their disinterest with the name Gollywood and as a result dissociate themselves from it.
According to Akorfa, the name didn’t go through a proper due diligence process for all industry stakeholders to accept.
In an interview with News One, Akorfa alleged that Richard Boateng, President of Film Directors Association didn’t consult with industry stakeholders to come up with the name. She said,
“I am disassociating myself from the name. He has not consulted any industry player. Nobody has agreed on that thing. He is behaving as if he is the President or leader of everyone in the industry. He is the president of his association and not all associations in the industry. If you talk to other stakeholders they will tell you that nobody has given their consent to the name. I wanted to put it on record that I am not part of the naming. People are thinking that it is the entire industry that has agreed, but that it’s not the case”.
Meanwhile, her colleague and fellow veteran, David Dontoh is of the claim that until Ghanaian filmmakers are able to show movies for people to appreciate, there is no industry to change its name in the first place.
“I don’t subscribe to the name ‘Gollywood’ because I don’t know where it’s coming from. If it’s the ‘G’ in the name, it could be Guinea or Gambia. I think we’re just trying to reinvent the wheel. The one who created Ghanaian films called it Ghana Film (film from Ghana). So I don’t know why we’re trying to follow people because everyone has a ‘Wood’ in their name,” said David in an interview with KOD on The Zone.
He further added, “Show movies for our own people to appreciate and that’s when I can say we have a movie industry but until that is done, I can’t say we have an industry”.
Following the high tension that has come up with the name Gollywood, the Ghana Academy of Film and Television Arts (GAFTA) have released a press statement urging all stakeholders in the industry to remain calm although there was no consensus on the rebranding and naming of the industry with stakeholders, but rather focus on making the industry better.
“The Film Act 935 captures the industry as the Ghana Film Industry and therefore we do not need to name the industry but rather work together to fix it to contribute to our National GDP”.
The Ghana Film Industry was rebranded to Gollywood on Thursday 12, July at the 2018 edition of ‘Ghana 60 Years on Film Summit’. Some key players in the movie fraternity in Ghana were awarded at the event with the ‘Legendary Honourary Award’.
