What's wrong featuring Ghanaian actors in Nollywood movies? ......Charles Novia

By SAMUEL OLATUNJI
Charles Novia
Charles Novia

In the spirit of West African unity, I don't particularly see anything wrong in allowing Ghanaian actors feature in Nollywood movies. It speaks volumes for the pivotal importance Nollywood has attained in the African continent, not forgetting the world.

Just like most actors and directors dream of attaining stardom in Hollywood U.S.A, which is regarded as the ultimate in the world, so do many aspiring actors all over the African continent dream of achieving stardom in Nollywood, as they believe it is a stepping stone to the pinnacle of fame. But, the so-called Ghanaian invasion did not start with a sense of brotherliness on the part of the Nollywood producers.

The short-sighted marketers' cabal, in their usual dense uni-directional line of thought, discovered that the audience in Nigeria was getting tired of the so-called 'A-list' actors, having seen them in hundreds of movies for the past ten years and the audience wanted new faces.

Thus, the Van Vickers, Nadia Buaris, Jackie Appiahs etc became the new darlings of this cabal. Remember I did state in an interview weeks back that some Nollywood stars will soon be phased out and most of the stars I mentioned replied with vituperations on my person. Well...aren't the chickens coming home to roost? This is the beginning of a new cycle of artistic expression for Nollywood.

I'm not particularly impressed with the quality of actors from Ghana in our Nollywood movies so far. Granted, they do have promise, but only the blind will fail to see that most of them are clones of their Nollywood counterparts and may soon experience diminishing returns. But then, that new Nollywood I have always advocated for may very well come out from this pseudo-synergy of Nollywood and Gollywood.