Frank Rajah Arase is a respected movie producer in Ghana.In an interview he granted recently,he revealed that he is the one who made Yvonne Nelson a star,alongside so many other Ghana actors likr Van Vicker,Nadia Buari & co.He also directed the movie Heart of Men that brought Yvonne to limelight.
My name is frank rajah efosa arase.am the
second son, second child of my family, What I do for a living is showbiz, movie
making in totality but I major in directing movies so that’s my major
though sometimes I dabble into producing
but directing is my main job.
How did you venture into the movie
industry?
It has been pretty long, I started this
business when I was very little and I have invested over 18 years into this business,
it’s not a joke. And the journey started out as a theatre practitioner, I used
to be a dancer of national theatre troupe and lots of it, stage plays and all
of that. I started from the stage and the curiosity of wanting to be behind the
scene and knowing what happens back there pulled me into film making and Paul
Obazele was the one who God used in bringing me into the industry. He took me
like a brother to many productions and that was how the journey started. I came
into the movie industry as an actor many years ago and looking at the
situation, seeing that the kind of movies being made had the major scenes going
to the older folks and we the young ones used to have just a scene or two,
after several auditions .Fortunately I did some few movies, like Scores To
Settle, After School Hours, and a couple of other movies. Out of curiosity to
know what it really takes to do a movie, that pulled me behind camera that was
how the journey started.
Where did that journey start?
Nigeria, am a Nigerian, I hail from Edo
state ,Benin city and I was born in Benin, bred in Lagos, schooled in Lagos and
started my film career in Lagos until God chose to move me to the direction
that pleases him, and today am happy that am blessed.
How did you naturalize as a Ghanaian
because you now look like a typical Ghanaian and even speak like them?
I didn’t really naturalize as a Ghanaian,
am still a Nigerian and what really
happened was that a friend of mine Tony contacted me that he wanted to come me
to come to Ghana and help him make a movie, he is a Ghanaian and had seen a
couple of my movies. He said he wanted me to come and make a film for him in Ghana
At what point did you completely relocate
to Ghana
One of the female actors in Nigeria that I respect so much, there was a
meeting we had back in Kenya
So what happened when the contract expired?
Before the contract expired, we became best
of friends, Abdul and I, he was pleased that we were able to turn out with
great movies that made the Ghana
Am married to a Nigerian and they are based
here in Nigeria
So how do you shuttle between Ghana and Nigeria
Job, I work and its God, wherever God
directs you, you go.
Do you have your own production house now?
Yea I do run my own Raj and Hero films
production company but most of the projects I do is for Venus films that’s
Abdul Sallam, He is the foresight for the Ghanaian film industry, he is
regarded today as the God Father of the Ghanaian film industry. He is one whom
I respect so much and God used him to show what I have to the world.
From what we hear and read about you, it
portrays you as a strict director, how true is that?
That is what people say, that maybe because
am from Edo and that people from that part of
the country are very stricty.Maybe it’s because I am from a broken home from
childhood and my mum did great by scolding me. Maybe that was part of my
upbringing, But what I believe is that it’s my job, am a very young man, my
life when am on set is different from when am not on set because I want it done
right .if the job fails then I have failed. so for me to achieve it, I have to
be at my best so most of the people I work with are my friends and I have to
relate with them like sisters but for us to bring out the best, the moment we
get on set, there must be a line because its job time and no friend
time.freidnship ceases and love for the job starts. I have to do what ever it
takes to make the job right.
What are some of your most challenging
movies?
Every movie I have done is challenging
because challenging to me is not how weighty the job is but how best I will
have to work hard to bring out the best in each and every character, I film
with the same set of people almost all the time and for me, the challenging part
of it is making sure that Jackie doesn’t t play Jackie in my next movie. And
this is the same one person you are filming with so differentiating them from
one movie to another and making them perfect so they get it right is the
biggest challenge I have had in every movie I have done. In terms of my famous
films, of all,Beyonce,Somewhere in Africa,Princess Tyra,The King is Mine, Agony
of Christ, Crime to Christ and so many of them. Its difficult to pick the best
but the brightest of all was Beyonce because it made a lot of impact all over
the world and created the Ghanaian Film Industry worldwide and my name being
attached to that production was a great deal and after that, it wads like a
standard in the industry. So I made sure I had to keep it up. It was a start up
point for me and I followed. It.
What makes your movies so unique?
I don’t know but maybe because before I
take up any production, I pray. before I start up with any shoot, I pray. You
see when you start up anything with God ,you cant fail. Many times my scripts
are my guide. most times I rewrite even after starting shoot. Each day before I
leave to shoot I pray and sometimes when I get to set and something just
cliques, then I change the plan immediately or I even rewrite the script. and
fortunately ,I have a man who believes so much in me and my style so whatever I
say, he doesn’t argue it .This free hand I got made it possible for me to do it
the way I want, and that is the result of all I have got today. But the
foundation is just prayer. I see some movies and say wow, this is a great job
but I discover that the way people will
embrace the on I did will be quite different, I know its not the job but the
favour on the job.
Being the one who groomed all the Ghana
Frankly speaking its one, many atimes
people don’t like to say this because they are highly sentimental but for me, any day any time,Majid Michel
remains the Best Ghana actor because Majid is about the only actor asides Adjetey
Anang who I also believe so much in but for Majid,when I have a project that I
want one to practically learn the character and impersonate someone you are not,
the only person that comes to my mind is Majid Michel, at a point people were
like Frank cant you ever make a movie without Majid and I said no because I
enjoy working with him, he is a perfectionist and that is me. I love someone
who works like me, he is never tired of takes no matter how many times you want
him to repeat a scene, he I ever ready because he wants it done right .There is
this drive for perfection that he has, I say to him all the time, you will go
places because you have the drive and the love for the act. Another thing he
has going for him is his ability to mimic people, it is very easy for him to
learn characters, if you do anything right now its very easy for Majid to just mimic
you .that gave him that versatility.
What are some of the major challenges
facing Ghollywood?
I would rather say we are growing right now
because one of the biggest fear I had was this movie I just won an AMVCA with
was nothing but the picture quality because we had serious problems with this
movie and when it comes to directing of this movie, I wasn’t in anyway looking
forward to winning the award because looking at the other movies nominated with
it, I saw this as a favour.it wasn’t in competition with any of them in terms
of picture quality. And when they say its viewer’s choice and I won this, I
said it’s possible because viewers will definitely vote me to win but we had a
lot of problem producing this movie. We produced the first one and then the
movie was robbed in the studio together with some equipments, we had to go and
reshoot and had another problem with it again, the media card got misplaced and
we reshoot again and got to the studio the 4th time and there was
audio problem, I have never experienced the kind of stress I did. At a time I
said I wasn’t going to film again until Yvonne said Frank lets go back and
shoot this thing, am going to bring my money out. I said ok if you are ready to
bring out the money. She did and we went back and had audio problem again, I
said ok lest just go to studio and do lip sinking .So after all of that, we had
a problem in the studio again, the job got missing in the system and while
trying to revive it, we dropped a lot of generation in the system, even the
quality dropped and I said anyhow, Yvonne just package this and release it let
rest for this job. And am surprised that the movie is picked and those that
have seen say its such a great story so am like God, if I had told this story in
my own way as if I hadn’t cut corner, it would have been amazing. But to God be
the glory, I have something to show for the stress.
That’s a personal challenge, what of Ghollywood
as an industry, what are their major challenges?
The challenges are technical, in terms of
our equipment and all of that
Can’t you as an individual buy these
equipments?
We don’t have investors yet and you won’t
even blame them. Some of them are coming in and pulling out and you know why,
because we don’t have the market for the movies right now. We don’t even have
cinemas, In Nigeria, there are cinemas about 6 but in America Ghana
we don’t even have .How much do you have, where are you going to sell these
movies to make your money .The market is not there for it right now unlike in
the USA
At some point, Ghana
Well Heart of Men was actually my movie and
we projected nudity in a very graphic way. Before then, I got lots of mails
from some of my foreign fans who said we love your movies but instead of
creating love scenes where you have to put people under the blanket, take off
those scenes but if you have to show the scenes, make it close to reality. That
was one flaw people saw in my movies so I was like lets try to make this happen
and maybe the devil was at work that day because everybody just complied and we
started shooting ,it wasn’t planned and it was one of those 5 mins madness so
we shot it and after that, it was like an open door for a lot of nudity in our
movies and I felt terribly bad for pioneering it and I have since cautioned myself,
Till date I will never do movies with deep kisses talk more sex.I even had
serious problems way back at home with my family over that movie, it was
terrible and one of those hit movies I didn’t want people to always remember me
with. Am doing my very best possible to create an image that people will see
and not frown their faces.
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