Award-winning Ghanaian movie producer, Peter Sedufia has disclosed that he spent over 240,000 dollars (1,450,000 Ghana Cedis) on his last major movie project, ‘Aloe Vera’.
Peter made this revelation during an interview where he noted that the initial budget for the movie was capped at 180,000 dollars. However, they had to increase it due to some extra costs that were incurred.
According to him, his partners from South Africa, France, and Ghana had a particular idea of how they wanted the movie executed so that it comes out uniquely, and as such, they were very ready to raise the money no matter how huge it was.
“In all, we spent about 240,000 dollars in production. It was supposed to be 180,000 dollars but the cost shot up because of the extra things we had to do.
“But I didn’t fund it alone, I had some funds from South Africa, France, and from our very own local people. The investment was worth it. Because, before Covid, when it was premiered, Silverbird told me that has been the biggest premier they ever had. It even beat ‘Black Panther’. ‘Black Panther’ was having the highest number of people visiting the cinema for an opening but now it’s ‘Aloe Vera'”.
Throwing more light on how such a huge amount of money was spent on a single movie, Peter Sedufia disclosed that they had to move to Dabala in the Volta region just to get that huge space they developed from scratch to get that beautiful setting used to shoot the movie.
The ‘Side Chic Gang’ movie producer added that the cost of getting the land from the townsfolks through negotiation, developing the land, and getting all the super-talented casts to that location all factored in to arrive at that amount of money they spent.
“We had to look for an isolated place and create our own structures so that we will be able to film when we want to and close when we want to. So, we went to one town in the Volta region and spoke to the Assemblymen and chief and they took us to one land and we negotiated and took the land. But before anything could happen, we had to use caterpillars to clear the land. Those buildings in the movie were built from the scratch”.
That notwithstanding, Peter Sedufia has always been known for producing great Ghanaian movies. Nonetheless, for his latest ‘Aloe Vera’ Movie, the movie producer has received very special commendations and accolades, for being able to produce a very high-quality movie.
Speaking on the back of this, Peter Sedufia disclosed that the movie went through several hands to get the final product.
“When the Ghanaian team finished with their part of the editing, we sent it to Germany, they did their part on the sound treatment and the finalization was done in France. The guys in Germany are very equipped with sound work. I know some do it here in Ghana but, it’s like thirty percent. So, I just didn’t worry myself with it. I just gave it to the guys in Germany to deal with that”.
Read also: Peter Sedufia debunks rumors of price increment in cinema tickets
