Agitation against Indian film stars baseless - Ravindra Randeniya

by L.S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

Ravindra Randeniya	Geetha Kumarasinghe

The agitation by some of those in the South Indian film industry and organisations against the Indian film stars who visit Sri Lanka is baseless, said leading film star Ravindra Randeniya.

He said that Sri Lanka and India have very strong friendly ties in cultural, economic and political affairs at present. The annual trade turnover between the two countries is more than Rs. 4 billion. Sri Lanka is a good market for Hindi and Tamil films.

Do the agitators demand the boycott of those films, Randeniya asked?

The former Parliamentarian and Presidential advisor Randeniya said that quite a number of Indian film and TV artistes, and technicians visit Sri Lanka for commercial and professional activities.

On the otherhand Sri Lankan film and T.V. professionals, artistes and technicians visit South India to make use of the facilities available in South Indian studios.

Thousands of young students are engaged in higher studies in Indian universities and colleges, he said.

The activities of a few extremists do not reflect the actual opinion which is highly encouraging for the two countries, he said.

Popular Film Star, producer and Bentara-Elpitiya SLFP Chief organiser Geetha Kumarasinghe said that there should be an ultimate motive behind these agitations by the South Indian Film artistes against Sri Lanka when the humanitarian operations were launched against the LTTE terrorists in 2008 some South Indian political leaders led demonstrations against the humanitarian operations in the hope of gaining political patronage.She said that Sri Lankan film stars led by her staged a demonstration against them in October 2008.

Tamil Nadu is not India which has more than 20 provincial languages and different communities. Some South Indian politicians want to messup the Sri Lankan issue and gain political or financial mileage. Sri Lanka should ignore such extremist activities, she said.

Leading super stars such as Salman Khan, Asin and Oberoi visited Sri Lanka and encouraged the friendly ties between the two countries. From the point of view of tourist promotion IIFA was a success.

This trend should continue with the total support from India and Sri Lanka, she said.