Tussle with LilWin: Martha Ankomah details why she rejected controversial movie role

Actress Martha Ankomah has explained she did not recently turn down a movie role for LilWin's 'A Country Called Ghana'.

She said it was rather a movie for director Frank Fiifi Gharbin.

Martha Ankomah spoke exclusively to Prince Benjamin (PB) on Accra 100.5 FM's Entertainment Capital.

"Two years ago, Director Fiifi Gharbin called me to tell me he wanted to work with me," Martha Ankomah said, clarifying: "It was not about their recent movie, A Country Called Ghana."

She bemoaned how "people think they called me [for that movie] and I didn't come to do it and I rubbished them".

Though Martha did not provide details for Gharbin's proposed movie, she revealed "It was about a certain couple – you know what, at the right time, I'll narrate the story".

The movie star stressed, however, that she only told Fiifi Gharbin, "Stories about spirits don't interest me.

"He pressed me but I told him the issue was with the storyline. I told him I wanted to work with him, [except for that]."

According to the entrepreneur and serial brand ambassador, she did not know Gharbin, prior to this phone call and movie role pitch, nor his role in Kumawood.

"Were it not for this incident, I wouldn't have known he was a Kumawood director, before God and man," she emphasised.

The philanthropist said, given his middle name, she initially had no reason to think Frank Fiifi Gharbin was linked to Kumawood, a movie scene based in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, "because Fantes [of Ghana's southern coast] name Fiifi and not Asantes [of Ghana's middle belt]".

Furthermore, "Fiifi did not send me a script but narrated the story to me rather," Ms Ankomah noted.

She said when she asked who else Gharbin had in mind for the movie, "he mentioned an actor I've never seen in a Kumawood movie before and so how was I to know it was a Kumawood movie I was rejecting?"

Martha said she and the said director eagerly agreed to work on a subsequent film project, "and that was the only time I spoke with Fiifi Gharbin – two years ago – since then, we've never spoken".

Early February 2024, Kumawood actor and filmmaker Kwadwo 'LilWin' Nkansah attacked Martha in a viral video on social media. He claimed, from Fiifi Gharbin, he had learned of Martha's deep-seated disdain for Kumawood.

He questioned Martha's talent, popularity and relevance to her Ghana Textile Printers (GTP) collaborators per her brand ambassadorial deal. He claimed Martha's place in the movie industry was ill-gotten because of her relationship with prominent men in Ghanaian society.

Aggrieved, Martha responded with a February 14 GH¢5 million defamation lawsuit. The matter is still in court at publication time.

Meanwhile, the 2024 movie A Country Called Ghana is produced by LilWin and directed by Fiifi Gharbin.

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