Celebrated Ghanaian filmmaker, Leila Djansi, has revealed that her mother influenced her choice of career.

Ms. Djansi is a filmmaker of international repute.

She made the interesting revelation on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z last Saturday, September 3. She shared the details of how she was subconsciously influenced by her mother to toe the line of filmmaking. “I was going to be a gynecologist, and then a forensic scientist… but my mom was a big influence”, she disclosed.

“My family grew up in India, so my mom was exposed to Bollywood. She would make us cook with her and then she would tell us stories… so I think that fed my love for story-telling”, she expatiated.

Leila further explained that her love for story telling was reinforced and nurtured while in primary school, where she would read storybooks and perform plays based on the stories. “I remember in Kabore [school], we had a library period so during [that time], we’d take stories and share the parts and perform plays”, she explained.

Leila Djansi is recognized much for her 2011 film Sinking Sands, for which she picked up an award for Best Original Screenplay Award at the African Movie Academy Awards.

The movie also won ‘Best Art Direction’, ‘Best Costume’, ‘Best West African Film’ and ‘Best Picture’ at the Ghana Movie Awards in the same year. ‘Ties that Bind’ and ‘Like Cotton Twines’ and some other movies in her rich directing repertoire.