Leila Djansi Refuses To Disclose Budget For "Ties That Binds"

Last year when local director-extraordinaire Leila Djansi went public to disclose she spent close to a million bucks (dollars) on African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) -winning "Sinking Sands", she had no idea the local movie industry was but too young to handle such declarations (not even if it was a publicity stunt).

On Tuesday, she completed shoot on the Ho set; back in Accra in the next couple of days, she's expected to complete yet another big movie titled 'Ties That Bind'. (Not big necessarily in budget terms). She tells Hi Newspaper at Ho on Saturday, April 2, "I won't make last year's mistake again by announcing how much I'm spending on Ties That Bind, if you are planning to enquire into that". [But your Hi Newspaper can't wait to give you details we laid hands on at the time of going to press]

Last year, when our readers wanted to know what actually went into the hyped $1M figure, your authoritative Hi Newspaper went to the extent of disclosing detail spending on Sinking Sands including fees paid to Hollywood actor Jean Jimmy Louis, make up artistes and airplane expenses, etc.

The Los Angeles-based producer/director, Leila, has refused to disclose the amount spent on her third Ghana production- after AMAA-winning 'I Sing of a Well' and AMAA-winning 'Sinking Sands', to prevent her from creating problems for the production.

According to her, because she declared the budget for her last production and even gave a breakdown of how the last dollar was spent in an exclusive interview with Hi Newspaper, people started charging "ridiculous" fees when she needed their services afterwards.

Ghanaian notables especially in the Leisure industry are always tight-lipped about their purse; it is the last thing local celebrities would open up on in the media or public platforms. Having lived, worked and gotten used to the US system, Leila Djansi thought she could import the practice of being honest in the big league make-believe world into our infant-but-fast-growing industry. Now, she seems to have woken up to the reality that this is GH (not US), where it is more than cool to spend between Gh15,000 and Gh50,000 to do a big 'picture'; and you still would have some change to thrown into marketing.

With a flick aimed at giving a voice to women in whatever situations they may find themselves, "Ties that bind" is a story of three women of different background who are united. Adobea (Omotola Jolade Ekeinde), Buki (Ama K Abebrese) and Theresa (Kimberly Elise) are three women from different walks of life bound together by a similar pain; the loss of a child. In a destined meeting in a small village in Kroboland, the women journey together to redemption, love, life and forgiveness as they renovate a dilapidated clinic for the villagers.

The movie was set on location at Ho in the Volta Region for the past two weeks. On Tuesday, the production team moved to Accra to continue shooting on the 5-week scheduled movie. More on "Ties that bind" will be posted here soon.