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Movie director and producer, Kofi Asamoah, popularly known as Kofas, has downplayed accusations by a South African movie director that he illegally copied his film, ‘SKEEM’.

To him, in spite of the anger expressed by Tim Greene that ‘John & John’ is a clear copy of ‘SKEEM’, he is happy that Ghanaians love his movie.

Tim, Creative Director at Quizzical Pictures, was not pleased that ‘John & John’ was a clear copy of his movie which was released in 2011.

Shortly after Kofas premiered the movie, many accused him of ‘copying and lifting’ the plot from a South African film.

Some movie fans were very disappointed when they found out that the movie’s story bears a striking resemblance to the storyline of the film directed by Tim Greene.

Kofas was reported to have said his film was only an ‘adaptation or remake’ of the South African movie with other reports suggesting that the Ghanaian director alleged that he sought the needed permission to adapt the film.

But from posts on social media, Tim said he had no knowledge of the Ghanaian director adapting his film.

He posted on Facebook: “THIS IS INSANE! Turns out Ghana’s biggest movie this year is a word-for-word rip-off of our movie SKEEM!”

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews’ MzGee, the Ghanaian producer said such incidents are not new to movies.

“In business, a lot of these things happen and for me, the joy is that at Kofas Media, we are able to do what we set out to do… We are able to entertain Ghanaians like we want,” he said.

Pushed further to find out if he has resolved the issue with the South African director, Kofas said, “the most important thing for us Kofas Media, as a production company, is that we are able to produce [several series] and I’m glad that people did enjoy John & John, people loved the film and today I can say that after John & John we’ve done other contents. So obviously, it means that Ghanaians accept our contents….”

Comic actor Richard Asante (Kalybos), who starred in the movie, also reacting to the issue admitted that producers failed to clearly communicate that ‘John & John’ was an adaptation of ‘SKEEM’.

"The communication didn’t go well, that is the flaw…we chose to do it, add comedy to it. For most people who haven’t seen the real movie, there is nothing like comedy in it; it's pure drama and thriller but we fused it. We added comedy to it,” Kalybos added.

The comic actor revealed that accusation of theft and controversy it generated “never worried me. We knew what we were doing.”

‘John & John’ stars veteran Nigeria actor Pete Edochie and Ghanaian actors Kalybos, Kojo Nkansah (Lil Win), Funny Face, KSM, Maame Dokono, Ahoufe Patri, John Dumelo, James Gardiner, Kobi Rana, Yaw Dabo, Nana Ama McBrown, Salma Mumin, Fella Makafui, Moesha Boduong, Roselyn Ngissah, Selly Gally, Bishop Bernard Nyarko, Zynel Zuh, Umar Krupp, among others.