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Kumawood actress, Matilda Asare has strongly opposed the perception that Kumawood is to be blamed for the collapse of the English Speaking Movies (Ghallywood) in Ghana.
For Matilda who is also a producer, there is no way Kumawood can be held responsible for whatever has happened to Ghallywood.

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In a recent interview with Graphic Showbiz on politics, the movie industry among other topics she said, “I don’t agree with those saying Kumawood collapsed Ghallywood.

"In Kumawood, we write stories about our culture and traditions, Ghallywood copies Nigerian and other foreign cultures.

“We use our local lifestyle but Ghallywood imitates others, even their costumes and storylines are foreign.

“Kumawood may sometimes fall short when it comes to technical ability but it is Ghallywood which has failed the industry. They could be doing movies on the various regions of Ghana and their cultures instead of doing foreign stuff,” she said.

Asked how she feels when Kumawood actors are described as illiterates, this is what Matilda has to say, “I am not bothered one bit about such comments.

"We do local movies and we need to be local. There is nothing wrong with doing movies in our local dialect,” she stressed.

Making suggestions on how the movie industry could bounce back, Matilda said, "when I joined the industry about 15 years ago, it wasn’t like this. Back then, we used to produce movies on CDs for sale globally. That has changed; nobody buys CDs any longer.

“Our leaders would have to adapt to the change; when time changes, you also change. The coronavirus disease has also destroyed things, there is no doubt about that.

"I was scheduled to premiere my latest movie, Heroes of Africa on April 11 but I had to postpone it because of the pandemic

“Again, there were no laws to guide the industry and piracy is killing us. Now that the National Film Authority has been put in place, it has to perform its role effectively so that we can have our Film Bill in place,” she said.

Matilda was of the opinion that when it came to content on television, there should be 70 per cent local content and 30 per cent foreign.

“Telenovelas are being shown all over the place; it is very bad and certainly doesn’t augur well for our local movie industry,” she said.

“We need to market our movies well and use all available platforms. Our marketing strategy must be apt. We can also appeal to investors to invest in our movies as well as individuals.

Matilda went on to disclose that she has political ambitions and plans to enter Parliament. “I want to go to Parliament in the future. There is no point meddling in politics if you have no political ambitions,” she said.

She praised the Akufo-Addo administration saying it was on course as far as the promises it made to the creative industry were concerned.

“It may not have fulfilled every single promise, but I can confidently say that it is on course”, she added.