Feature
Coping With Fame
On Nollywood.
The only thing he misses is his cherished privacy. As it turns out Ramsey is a quiet man at heart who likes to spend quality time with his family. Married to beautiful Emelia Philips and blessed with two lovely children, a son and a daughter Ramsey says they are the most important things in his life. “The biggest challenge is that I can’t go out without being noticed. One has to remember that in the midst of it all, I have a family. I have children and I want to take my children out and spend time with them. It’s so difficult because when you go out everyone want to talk to you. People are waving. People want to take photos and shake hands. Whereas all I wanted was just to take my family out and have some fun like any other person, but it is impossible. Sometimes, I wish I could just have my life back.”
Ramsey applauded the industry which he feels has grown tremendously but needs much technical improvement. He said, “Nollywood has the human potential to move to the next level and produce extraordinary movies that would be at par with Hollywood, but,” he says, “the lack of infrastructure and the level of piracy in Nigeria are the major problems that are facing the industry.
We met with Ramsey on the set of his next film titled Yankee Boys. The star studded film, produced by Mega Movies and directed by Moses Ebiere, features Emeka Ike, Jim Lyke, Janto Jack, Van Vicka, Tom-Tom Dike, Arinze Egesimba and others. The movie also stars Ghanaian actress Juliet Ibrahim and Uganda actress, Princess Farida. Yankee Boys is about a team of young men who go into the gold trading business and are consumed by greed and lust for wealth. Ramsey says his fans should be on the look out for the movie which promises to be a monster hit.
14 Dog’s World
“A producer puts out a good script and brings together the actors and actresses. He puts in so much hard work to produce the movie, then when the movie comes out, he does not get the returns he should. That kind of scenario stifles creativity and is very unhealthy for the Industry. We need to get to a point where piracy does not exist so that when you invest in the industry, you can make reasonable profit. If we tackle the problems of infrastructure, piracy and electricity the industry will move forward.” Ramsey advocated that Government provide an enabling environment for the industry. He said banks should invest in this sector which is the only totally Nigerian export commodity -- produced in Nigeria by Nigerians. He said that banks should study the investment potentials of Nollywood. “Government should provide necessary infrastructure. They should enact new laws and implement existing ones to protect the industry. From there we will do the rest ourselves.”