The celebrity canker in Ghana; a sickening ‘copy-copy’ trend

Celebrity life is growing in Ghana. Day in and day out, people are constantly yearning to be in the spotlight, something they are willing to go all lengths to achieve.

Unlike past generations where people just wanted to act for the love of it, now, it is big business with ‘huge’ incomes attached to it. There are now television sets in almost every home in Ghana and with more free channels – some showing movies 24/7 – actors and actresses are seen by a wider audience than before.

These days, reports of producers allegedly sleeping with desperate female ‘wanna bees’ before giving them a shot at glory and fame do filter through. While no concrete evidence has come to light with respect to the numerous ‘sleep with me for a role’, many female aspirants are falling victim to it.

No specific accounts of such have been recorded in the music industry and even if there is, it will be minimal.

The questions that easily come to mind are; why the mad rush for fame and is it worth it being a celebrity in Ghana? At least my intro answers a bit of the first part of this question but to the second question, the answer is simply, it is not worth it.

Unlike big entertainment industries in the US where big budget goes into the music and movies they produce, Ghanaians – for the lack of funds, as they always say – do not invest in their works.

Those big markets sell their movies across the world, therefore they make huge profits – enough to pay their casts and musicians well to keep up with the luxurious taste celebrity life comes with.

From my own research, Ghanaian musicians and movie personalities do not earn much. According industry persons, Majid Michel, the highest Ghanaian paid actor as the end of 2011, bagged in from GHS7,000 to GHS10,000 (maybe more) per movie while Jackie Appiah, Nadia Buari and others cashed in from GHS5,000 to GHS10,000.

A movie producer – name withheld – told me that producers in Ghana spend between GHS30,000 to GHS50,000 per movie.

Now the interesting twist is that, while many will say Majid is ‘too known’, he does not show off an expensive lifestyle – especially when he bags more money in movies than his peers.

Unlike the male ‘celebrities’ – being very cautious with the word celebrities – the female ‘celebrities’ tend to always live high class lifestyles with high fashion taste. They cruise in expensive cars, apartments and expensive fashion taste to match.

Mathematically, considering the amount of money they make and the price tag of some of their fashion tastes, one will conclude that it is highly impossible to keep up such a lifestyle. How do they make the extra money to maintain the celebrity lifestyle, a perfect question to ask?

There have been unconfirmed reports that some engage in ‘juju’ – spiritual means – to get roles and money while others also engage in underground dealings to get extra incomes. Critics have also question the quality and prices of some of the costumes some of these celebrities wear. Not forgetting the several wardrobe malfunctions.

While our entertainment personalities may portray that they wear original and expensive clothes from top designers across the world, industry experts say they could be cheap inferior designer outfits some with evidence to back them. There are reports that some celebrities wear and even sell some of these cheap products.

If any of these are true, the question you would like to ask again is, is it worth it seeking fame and being a celebrity in Ghana?