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| Sunday, 29 January 2006 |
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Sound 'financial screening' vital for film Corp. by L. S. A. Wedaarachchi It is essential to build a sound financial situation in the National Film Corporation (NFC) which has sunk into a serious financial crisis.
According to sources no proper financial system was implemented in the NFC to collect the dues and the film financing loan instalements during the last few years. It is estimated that Rs. 88 million had been given as film financing loans. Rs. 30 million has to be collected from private sector film importers and exhibitors. The newly appointed chairman of NFC, Asoka, Serasinghe a lawyer by profession told the "Sunday Observer Business" that he would take all steps and urgent measures to recover the outstanding dues from the relevant parties. "It is a must to rejuvenated the film industry in Sri Lanka and take the measures for the welfare of the film community. It appears that the NFC by its irresponsible attitude in the past has expedited its own closure and sought its own doom, he said. According to the National Film Corporation Act the sole authority of film imports and distribution comes under the purview of the film Corporation. That authority has been given to the private sector without signing proper legal agreements during the last few years. According to the NFC chairman the privatisation of film distribution in Sri Lanka has given nothing back to the industry, film artistes or filmgoers. "Private sector film distributers have been strengthened after privatisation. They were financially benefited by privatisation. According to the conditions laid down at the time of privatisation, film distributors should produce at least four films per year. Except one distributor all the others had not done so. "I believe some other remedial steps should be taken immediately in view of the flop of the privatisation of film distribution in Sri Lanka, he said. Although film distributors ought to make a payment to the NFC in regard to film distribution, no payment has been made to the NFC so far. According to the chairman at present importation of films is also totally handled by the private sector. The NFC is permitted to import 170 films including 70 Tamil, 65 English, 25 Hindi and 10 other languages. This has not been adhered to by importers and the majority of those imported were English films. As highlighted by the critics the majority were sex films and were not suitable for Sri Lankan audiences. In future the NFC will import high quality films specially children's films under a joint project by the NFC and selected foreign countries. "It appears that the NFC acted to please the private agendas of some individuals who were at the NFC. My attempt is to transform the NFC into a financially sound institution to uplift the film industry in Sri Lanka and build a viable future for the film community including artistes, technicians and all partners of the industry according to the "Mahinda Chintana" the chairman said. The new NFC chairman, is also a teledrama artiste, producer and a senior electronics media man who has conducted highly acclaimed TV programs such as Janata Adikaranaya, Atta-Natta and Anawaranaya. Considering the threat posed towards the local film industry by TV film
shows and low quality sex films the new chairman will launch a series of
programs to attract local audiences to our cinema halls and to local films.
Mini cinemas in shopping complexes, limit the number of film shows on TV
channels and joint ventures with foreign film related companies and NFC are
among the new programs planned by him. |
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