Talk of the local film business

I found a long email from film producer/director/entrepreneur Chandran Rutnam. He had sent it to several other people, journos included. Being a cinema buff and an admirer of Rutnam as one of our premier film producer/directors I read carefully through and decided I need to convey most of what he wrote to a wider readership. Plus add my own comments. I rate his films The Road from Elephant Pass and According to Matthew two of the best of Sri Lankan films, the latter first released in English. They were excellent in filming, editing, and the carefully selected actors suited roles they played. Translated and dubbed to several languages, they were screened in many other countries.

If you remember, Road from Elephant Pass was an adaptation of Nihal de Silva’s novel of the same name. Ashan Dias depicted the army captain detailed to escort a Tamil girl who is supposed to want to convey a top secret to an Army high-up in Colombo. Her double crossing plan goes haywire when she falls in love with the originally nasty soldier. Ratnam’s wife told me interestingly how Suranga Ranawaka was selected to play the role of the LTTE-er disguising herself as traitor to the Tamil cause, but in the end becoming one for the sake of love. Ratnam had been long on the lookout for a girl he felt would play the role competently and also look it. On his return to office from a sojourn overseas he spotted a new employee. He immediately sensed she was the girl he had been looking for to play Kamala Velaithan.

According to Matthew –

the scandalous saga of midnight masses, priestly sexual indiscretion and an illicit love affair; murder of two innocents by Father Mathew Pieris of the Anglican Church of St Paul the Apostle on Kynsey Road had no easy passage to screening in cinemas. The Church objected strongly and would not allow filming in the Kynsey Road premises. Thus the construction of extensive sets with a replica of the domed church. However, it finally made it and was translated to several languages and won accolades. Alston Koch played the role of the well built, deep voiced hypocritical padre to perfection while a just-turning-popular Bollywood star, Jacqueline Fernandez, played the bewitched woman who was complicit in the murder of respective spouses.

The above is an introduction to a man who needs no introduction, and who has moved to have local films accepted as an industry with accruing benefits.

Local cinema now an industry

In the email received, the announcement is made that finally Sri Lankan cinema is an industry. “We were 40 years behind but that is a norm for Sri Lankan cinema. We were 10 years behind in our entry to digital projection. It has also been observed that the cinema industry in most of the countries in the world has been improved with the recognition of cinema as an industry.” The email noted that the motion picture industry is a multimillion dollar business throughout the world, India and the US leading. The reason why we have lagged so far behind is adduced to “personal agendas within agendas and of course, the Sri Lankan brand of Jealousy and Envy embedded in our genes.” True? I agree. Judging is by what pertains in most fields of human activity in this land.

The email says the making and marketing of films, like the manufacturing of any product is primarily an industry and must come under the purview of the Ministry of Industries. A selected film, if considered of cultural value, should be transferred to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, where the business of films making, distribution and screening belonged to earlier.

Referring to the distribution of films, it must be at the discretion of the cinema owner. It is up to him to decide whether it’s marketable or not. “If the government wishes to accommodate loss making films often referred to erroneously as ‘Art films and Award Winners’ the Ministry of Culture must take the credit and bear the loss. They could, if they wish to, screen such in their special cinema circuit.”

Four all important factors in show business are identified: production, exhibition, profit and quality. Expanding on ‘show business’ the definitions are Show: business that produces a product that people are willing to pay to watch. Business is that the film covers costs and makes profit or loss.

“As an ‘Industry’ the cinema owners must be encouraged to give a better ambiance and a better service. They must be given the liberty to exhibit any film in any language which they feel will fill their cinemas for their survival. The survival of the cinemas is of paramount importance if the cinema industry is to prosper.

“Our local Sinhala and Tamil films must upgrade their quality and audience appeal to compete for exhibition in the cinemas. We have the talent…we have the technology and most of all, we now have a worldwide audience.”

Ratnam ends his email on film as an industry by intoning “Better late than never.”

History of Sinhala cinema

I deem it not out of place, rather pertinent, to go back in time to trace very briefly the birth of cinema in our land. I researched when I wrote about the incomparable Rukmani Devi some time ago.

The birth of the Sinhala film industry was on January 21, 1947; in India though. Thus our local film industry is three score and ten plus four years. As we all know, it was Kadawunu Poronduwa (Broken Promise) that holds the honour of being the first Sinhala film, produced by S M Nayagam, directed by Jyotish Singh and scripted by BAW Jayamanne. Stars were Rukmani Devi, the queen of emotion; Eddie Jayamanne – dubbed on billboards as The King of Comedy, Mabel Blythe his partner in kitchen antics, Stanley Mallawarachchi – Rukmani’s love interest and also starring Bertram Fernando and others.

Hollywood produced the world’s first sync-sound musical – The Jazz Singer – starring Al Johnson on October 6, 1927. In Britain the first sound feature film was Blackmail directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released on July 28, 1929. India, now the world’s largest producer of films and having sections within the industry – Bollywood (Mumbai), Tollywood (Bengali), South Indian and in several languages – first released its sound talkie Aram Ara on March 14, 1931.

Looking at dates, we were 20 years behind Hollywood; 18 behind the UK; and 16 behind India. However the first Sinhala film produced in-house in Ceylon was in 1952, directed yet again by South Indian Nayagam and titled Banda Nagarayata Pamine, followed by Prema Tharangaya (1953) and Ahankara Sthree (1954).

Whatever said and done, our cinema has progressed with stalwarts like Lester James Peiris, Sumithra Peiris, Chandran Ratnam to name but three with very many younger persons of skill and sensitivity to direct and produce quality films. We are also glad that after untoward delay, digitalization of old films was introduced and is done now. The landmark making Rekawa was almost lost to posterity.

Thus congratulations to the movers and doers who have succeeded in getting due recognition for local films so it is henceforth a recognized industry.