Entertainment Analyst Nana Frimpong popularly called Ziega has accused Kumawood star Adu Kofi a.k.a Agya Koo of plans to kill Kwaku Manu’s career years ago by blacklisting him to cast roles in same movies.
He claimed Kwaku Manu who became the face of Kumawood, was a threat to Agya Koo who was the reigning actor at that time.
According to him, Agya Koo kicked against the idea of movie producers casting Kwaku Manu because he the former (Agya Koo) had outlived his popularity.
Ziega alleged that Agya Koo who became arrogant due to his acquired money begun to reject roles and was replaced by Kwaku Manu.
He claims Agya Koo connived with the few movie producers close to him to sideline Kwaku whose performance was equally a top-notch.
‘There are a couple of Kumawood actors and actresses who are pompous; I know both the respected and the arrogant ones. Kwaku Manu is humble and he has been since, he has demonstrated good behaviour over the years.
‘When Agya started fucking up, hijacking the system because he was the sought after then. Some of us were worried, I voiced out my opinion. I have said it over and over again, and I will say it again, Agya Koo wanted to use his popularity to blacklist Kwaku Manu who was equally good. Agya Koo wanted to kill the career of Kwaku Manu. It took courageous movie producers like Jones Agyeman to unleash Kwaku’s talent,’ he said.
Contributing to discussion on why Kumawood is dying on Abusua FM’s Abusua Entertainment hosted by Nana Hemaa, he said the system is porous, rot and weak, hence the influx of movie producers in the Kumawood.
‘Most of the movie producers and directors who don’t know jack about the movie industry direct movies, how?. Everybody wakes up and decides to direct a movie without any proper training. Because some people have money, they want to invest just to add to their array of businesses. Majority of the movie producers are backbiters, they are destroying the industry, now the sector is not growing like it used to be,’ he fumed.
He called on movie producers to be risk-takers by casting new ones to be at par with the big guys such as Kwaku Manu, Lil Win, Agya Koo, Nana Ama McBrown, Kyeiwaa and others.
Mr Frimpong said most of the producers are not respected due to the way they carry themselves arguing that majority of them dress shabbily to set.