To keep film industry alive:

Cinematic creations with a difference needed

The Sri Lankan film industry is not in the best of health as a collective entity though there are flashes of individual brilliance. Three contemporary films highlight this phenomenon. Machang , Akasa Kusum and Alimankada (The Road from Elephant Pass) have all been critically acclaimed here and abroad. They ran to packed houses around the island. This means that quality films can still attract audiences.

What ails the local film industry, Sinhala and Tamil ? Many people place the blame entirely on television, but that should not be the case. True, there has been a severe impact on cinema through the advent of television. Once you bring a television set home (a substantial investment at a minimum of around Rs. 28,000), the rest is all free (unless you subscribe to pay TV services) and you don't have to leave the comforts of home. It brings you entertainment from around the world at the touch of a button. With around 18 local channels to choose from, Sinhala, Tamil, English and Hindi movies are abundant on the telly, practically 24/7.

Indeed, the availability of free entertainment at home itself is a compelling reason not to visit the cinema. It remains an expensive proposition for most families, with transport and ticket costs factored in.

Lester James Peries

An adult balcony/ODC ticket costs as much as Rs. 200 at some cinemas and 'half' tickets are not exactly half that price. A five member family will have to spend at least Rs. 800 to watch a premier movie at an airconditioned cinema. This is a lot of money, which most families can use for other household expenses such as food.

That said, television, even a 52-inch LCD or plasma, can never really come close to a real cinematic experience - a gigantic screen, immersive soundscape and total attention. Someone once said that good cinema is "when you forget about the screen" and think it is all real. Unlike television, the cinema is a collective, social experience. You sit in a darkened theatre with hundreds of strangers, all spellbound by the events depicted on screen.

There is nothing to distract you (if you keep your phone switched off, that is), no advertisements (except at the beginning) and for at least two hours, your eyes are glued to the screen.

But people will elect to pay for these factors only if the product is superior. Hence the term box office success or failure. A cinematic creation must somehow be different than the countless TV shows which the viewers get for free. This is where we can learn a lesson from Hollywood and Bollywood.

For years, Hollywood directors have been wooing audiences with movies that would simply be unaffordable for the TV networks - special effects, unusual stories, big name stars and epic dramas come to mind. No TV network could have funded Roland Emmerich's 2012 or James Cameron's 3-D Avatar, as their mind blowing special effects cost millions of dollars. These films are best seen in the theatre anyway. There are some (low-budget) stories which cannot be made for television due to censorship concerns - they too fit only the cinema.

As I mentioned at the very beginning, we need cinematic creations with a difference. There are hundreds of teledramas on the 'idiot box'. Films have to be better than these run of the mill teledramas and focus on novel issues to attract crowds. This brings us to the whole issue of arthouse and commercial movies. In reality, all films have to be commercial because the industry cannot survive without healthy box office returns. But in terms of a broad definition, arthouse films are quality creations that exploit the medium of cinema to the fullest, while the latter are formulaic creations with lots of fights, songs, jokes, dances and predictable twists. They do not win any awards, but their success is also vital to the survival of the industry as a whole. Even the arthouse films can succeed only if so-called commercial films keep the industry alive. These 'masala' movies do not add any value to the industry or bring fame to the country, but some directors and producers see them as a 'safe' alternative to high-brow films that could fail at the box office a la Heaven's Gate.

There is a crucial need to encourage the production of quality films, not necessarily with an eye for local and international awards but with the aim of improving the industry per se. This country does not have a 'film rights' culture, whereby producers snap up rights to film outstanding fiction and non-fiction books. The National Film Corporation should identify new books that could be good candidates for movies and set up a mechanism for turning them into cinematic masterpieces. We also lack a proper film studies academy (affiliated to a university or stand-alone), where prospective actors and directors can learn their respective craft. The students should be shown global cinematic masterpieces that would help them master some techniques of the masters, including our own. The faculty should comprise both local and foreign personnel who have an intimate knowledge of the global industry.

Another worrying aspect is that Sri Lanka does not have an international-standard film archives. Original prints of many hit Sri Lanka films such as Ran Muthu Doowa (Island of Gold and Pearls- the first Sinhala colour film) have vanished without a trace. This is a crime in every sense of the word. All films, however crass or mundane they may be, deserve to be preserved for posterity. Sri Lanka is fortunate to have an individual collector who has amassed a lot of Sinhala movies, but it should really be a function of the State authorities.

A modern cinama hall

It is also time that our film makers looked beyond our shores for movie marketing and exhibition. Ours is too small an island to sustain a good film industry. Participation in film festival is not enough - the aim should be theatrical exhibition and/or TV exposure abroad. The recent screening of a Sinhala movie at London's famous Empire Cinema was a milestone in our cinema history. This should become a regular occurrence. Chandran Ratnam recently announced plans to dub his popular Alimankada into several Indian languages including Hindi and Tamil. Indeed, an attempt should be made to crack the Indian market first through dubbed versions before setting our sights on Europe and the USA.

The NFC and directors/producers should also secure deals with major television networks worldwide, especially those showing foreign movies, for prime-time broadcasts of quality local movies. Such films should also be turned into DVDs and Blu-rays, dubbed into multiple languages and subtitled as well. This is a massive undertaking, which should be implemented in collaboration with a renowned international production house or film studio.

There are those who argue that the theatrical exhibition of foreign films should be restricted to help the local film industry. This is an insular opinion that insults discerning viewers. This approach was in fact tried around 15 years back with no discernible improvement in local cinema. The only result was that local audiences were deprived of seeing some quality overseas movies. This is an open economy and audiences have the right to see the fare they want. If there are quality local movies, the audiences will flock to see them regardless of the overseas fare on offer. Sri Lanka also needs to hold an international film festival to attract quality new films from around the world. This will give local audiences the chance to see great new foreign (and local) films.

Another serious issue is the drastic reduction in the number of cinemas over the years. Cinema halls had to close down as the crowds dwindled. It is heartbreaking to see some cinemas converted into hotels and supermarkets. A few decades back, almost every town had a theatre.The Government should encourage the establishment of cinemas countrywide. More concessions and incentives should be granted to theatre builders and operators. They need not be massive - some towns do not have a resident or transient population to a sustain 1,000 seater cinema. Smaller, stand-alone 100 or 200 seater theatres or mini multiplexes are ideal for filling the gap.

Sri Lanka's film industry is now more than 60 years old. It has been a long journey from Kadawuna Poronduwa (Broken Promise) to Alimankada . Ever since Lester James Peries' Rekhawa (Line of Destiny) changed the course of Sinhala cinema, there have been many brilliant movies that portrayed the gamut of human emotions on the silver screen. The challenge for the authorities, the film industry and other stakeholders of the industry is to move towards more quality productions that could garner local and international accolades. Sri Lanka should aim to gain a reputation as a country which produces high quality movies.