Veteran Actor Nathaniel Banini has criticised the current state of Ghana’s movie industry.
Speaking in an interview with Giovani Caleb on 3FM Drive, Mr. Banini said Ghana’s creative sector is now “trying to mimic Western stuff”.
The veteran actor said while there are many genuine Ghanaian stories which can be scripted for movies, the industry is rather focused on emulating stories and content from the Western world.
“It has lack originality and I think it is a wrong thing to do. I sit here and think about the things we have that we have not harnessed. Somewhere in Africa was shot in Ghana, that piece is a big stuff.
“We have so much original stuff that we can do but all we are doing is copying and copying. What happened to the Yaa Asantewaa stories and the land of million magicians, Dr. Abdullah’s stories,” he stated on Thursday, February 22.
Responding to issues about funding which is limiting the creative sector, Mr. Banini was skeptical funding is the problem.
He stressed that the sector rather has no faith and not confident in its original stories.
“The problem is we do not believe in what we have, we do not have the vision to see through [ the stories]. People borrow money to do funeral but you cannot borrow money to fund a project like this? he asked to emphasised his point.
I’m now a nurse in the US with 17 years’ experience – Veteran Actor Nathaniel Banini
“We are too shy to invest. Nigerians are not shy to invest that’s why I like Nigerians and when they release their movies within a certain time they have retrieved all the money have invested with profits.”
The veteran actor who has been out of the movie scene for a long time disclosed that after leaving the film industry in Ghana, he pursued a nursing career.
Banini who has been out of the movie scenes for a long time has all these while been building a career in nursing for over 17 years.
“I didn’t become a nurse overnight; it’s been a long journey. In the US, for you to become a nurse is a big thing. So, I switched from the arts to science,” he told Giovani Caleb on 3FM Drive.
The veteran actor said he had no prior experience or dream of becoming a nurse while in Ghana but his current profession is as a result of “travel and see” phenomenon.
“An art person like me should never think of working in a hospital but if you travel and want to be smart and find out, you will…Its all travel and see it’s not easy but you have to do what you got to do,” he noted.