A film does not always need to carry a message - Sangeetha Weeraratne

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

"A film does not always need to convey a message. It is enough if it makes the audience, go through a range of emotions." says the attractive and witty Sangeetha Weeraratne in a candid interview with the Sunday Observer.

When you watch a film you should be able to go through a range of different emotions. You should cry, you should laugh, you should be transformed into another world, so much so that you will come home as a different person altogether. This is what you will find in Sewandi; says Sangeetha with an enigmatic smile. Sewandi, which will soon be released, is her maiden production venture, and focuses on love, passion and vengeance.

Talking about the initial stages of the production process of the movie, she says the first stumbling block she encountered was in choosing a right director for her maiden production. This was specially difficult as she had worked with thirty odd directors. At last the dice had fallen on the veteran film director Vasantha Obeysekere. When he told her about the synopsis of the film "Swwandi" she had decided to go ahead and produce a movie from it.

Among the other directors she had wanted to work with to produce her first movie were Gamini Fonseka, Christy Premaratne, Roy de Silva and, Dr. Lester James Pieris. But when she had asked Gamini Fonseka to direct her first production, Gamini had refused to do so saying that he had never made a film.

Commenting on the recent levy on imported foreign films and dubbing of cheap teledramas that have invaded the small screen, she said that although the levy had made some impact on airing imported cheap foreign films and teledramas, it had failed to deliver the expected results as certain TV stations shifted the burden on to the advertisers and recovered the levy from increased advertising rates, while deceiving the public by stating that they have paid more for the viewers' pleasure in order to turn the public against the move by the government.

According to Sangeetha the artistes who formulated the recommendations for the imposition of the levy were those who did not believe in marketing Sri Lankan culture for monitory gains and wanted to stop the invasion of another culture. "It was a protectionist move to nurture the local film industry" says Sangeetha.

She believes that the Government should immediately stop dubbing all foreign language films, teledramas and soap operas and feels the move will receive widespread support from various stakeholders in the industry and even the advertising agents and employees in the private TV stations.

This will, while protecting local industry encourage internationally acclaimed films to be imported into the country contrary to speculations made by some sections in the media that the levy would make Sri Lanka a cultural desert. Stating that a certain TV channel had instructed their TV personalities not to feature her in their programmes, she refused the argument that the levy would violate public rights.

Born into a family associated with Sri Lankan cinema, Sangeetha Weeraratne had grown up in an environment surrounded by various film production apparatus.

Among the films close to her heart and in which she played diverse roles are Nomiyena Minisun, Sapta Kanya (seven virgins), Marutaya, Dorakada Marawa, Salelu Warama, Pauru walalu, Bahu Barya. These films have brought her local and international fame as they were featured at diverse international film festivals and her acting was hailed as remarkable by local as well as international film critics.

The films also gave Sangeetha the much-needed international exposure at a relatively young age. Besides being a busy actress cum producer, Sangeetha is also a successful businesswoman managing two studios.

As she is the only member of her family living in Sri Lanka she constantly visits her parents in Panadura while managing a house in Colombo.

In spite of her busy schedules, she finds time to read novels by authors such as Jeffrey Archer, Sydney Sheldon, and Daniel Steele. Sangeetha also does a little bit of fabric painting when she has the time for it. She also loves listening to music.