Government must ban telenovelas - Ivan Quashigah

Kumkum Bhagya, Jhansi Ki Rani, Timeless love among other foreign soap operas have swept away locally produced TV series on Ghanaian television stations and veteran filmmaker, Ivan Quashigah, has proposed a solution to the menace which is also suffocating the Ghanaian movie industry.

According to Mr Quashigah who is also known for producing hit TV series like “Things We Do For Love” and “YOLO” among other viral commercials, the best move to deal with these telenovelas flooding the screens, will be for the government to place a ban on these foreign contents.

Speaking to blogger Zion Felix, he explained that these foreign movies are purchased by the TV Stations at a cheaper rate which Ghanaian content producers can’t compete with and until a ban is introduced, there won’t be a better solution.

In the video sighted by pulse.com.gh, he said “They are buying Mexican soaps because those Mexican soaps are produced at high standards, they spend a lot of money to produce them and those soaps have done their circuits in the Latin America, so right now they are selling them one episode for like $400 $200 $300 and you can go and buy plenty.

“Which Ghanaian series can you buy for 100, 200 or $400? You can’t, so it means that it will favour only the foreign ones which are cheaper and it’s the same story everywhere, when you go to the textiles industry it’s the same”.

Mr Quashigah, therefore, emphasized that the government shouldn’t even think of investing capital in the movie industry.

“Don’t worry about money. This is one industry that if you do not put money in, it can generate. All you have to do is to place a ban on foreign contents from morning till let’s say 10 pm” he said.