Ghana Movie Industry is not dying - Abdul Salam

Popular Ghanaian producer Abdul Salam Mumuni has waded into the recent controversy that the country’s movie industry, especially English movie sector, is gradually becoming extinct.

He said the industry was far from dying and that persons who thought it was dying only didn’t understand the dynamics of current industry activities.

According to him, times have changed and the industry has also moved to a different level where certain practices have become archaic. Stakeholders who continue to follow those practices and don’t change along with the times will keep saying the industry is dying.

“The industry is not dying, it has just moved to a different level,” Abdul Salam told NEWS-ONE on Tuesday afternoon at the press launch of his upcoming movie titled Candle In The Wind.

“The industry has moved from VCD level. If you are depending on VCD then it means the industry is dead for you but if you are depending on the new level that the industry has taken then the industry is not dead. If indeed the industry is dead then why am I investing? I am still investing into the movie industry and I’m shooting movies. Now you have to put your movie on the internet for people to watch. That’s a different step the industry has taken. You can put your movie on Mnet’s boxoffice for people to pay to watch. If you have a good movie, you can put it there and promote it for people to watch. I feel the industry is not like what we used to have which was depending on VCD. It is not like that anymore. It has been taken to a different level and if you want to follow that level then you have to shoot a very good movie,” he added.

Meanwhile Salam blamed the collapsed VCD system on piracy. Also, he said the increase in more TV channels has taken some attention off the movies.

He added that there was a need to look at other strategies of marketing movies.

“Now we have over 50 TV channels and all of them have good contents. So if even you buy a good movie on your DVD, you can’t watch it because there is a lot of content showing on these channels. So hence the sales of the VCD or DVD have dropped. If you don’t have any plan then you can’t stay in the industry,” he revealed.

Salam’s new movie, Candle In The Wind is directed by Pascal Amanfo and stars award-winning actors Jackie Appiah, James Gardner, Christabel Ekeh, Michelle Mckinney Hammond, Helen Asante, Timothy Bentum and a host of others.

It will be the first Ghanaian movie to open the year 2016 on the Ghanaian movie calendar as it premieres on January 1, 2016.

Salam employed movie fans to make it a point to see the movie.