Lankan creations for world cinema Lankan creations for world cinema
by Ruwini Jayawardana
Breaking into the limelight with
the globally acclaimed ‘Arunata Pera’ (Before the Dawn), Amarnath
Jayatilaka had made his mark as one of the veteran filmmakers in local
cinema. He recently clinched the Ranapala Bodhinagoda Memorial Literary
Award at the Sarasaviya Film Festival for his immense service to the
industry.
 Not stopping there the gifted director is now on a mission to project
local talent to the global audience. “I was inspired by President
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s quote when Sinhala cinema turned 60. He had
commented that if the ‘State is more forcefully and positively involved,
the Sri Lankan sign in the world cinema can easily be established’.
He had also said that we need to use free mass media to propagate
Buddhism around the world. His comments made me think out of the box,”
Jayatilaka unveiled how he came upon his concept. He believes that he
had found the key to the problem. He plans to make a series of movies
based on tales from the Buddha’s period. He notes: “There is a growing
interest towards Buddhism. ‘Patachara’, the oldest recorded love story
with the most tragic ending, will be the first in the series.
The film will be made in Sinhala but dubbed in Hindi and subtitled in
English. For the first time in history I will be portraying the Buddha
as a living being through the use of technology.”
He hopes to launch ‘Patachara’ to coincide with the 2600 Sri
Sambuddha Jayanthi in 2011. Jayatilaka’s second project, ‘Awakening of a
Lotus’, is a suspense story in which he follows the odyssey of a young
American woman’s discovery of Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka.
“‘Amar Pooja’ will be the first Hindi movie to be made by a Sri
Lankan team. It is a love story between a Sri Lankan youth named Lanka
and an Indian girl named Barathi. There are eight songs and six dances
in the musical,” he said adding that an Indian company is interested in
co-producing the project. An experimental film titled ‘Poraya’ (Combat)
which revolves around Sri Lanka’s native martial art form ‘Angam Pora’
is another movie Jayatilaka has up his sleeve.
Jayatilaka is also a part of the team which promotes Sri Lanka as a
film location. Their latest project is ‘Vijaya in Lanka’, a Hindi movie,
which will be shot in Sri Lanka. “Several stories written by me like
‘Hunters of the Blue Sapphire’ and ‘The Royal Elephant’ have been
developed into screenplays and are ready for production. American
companies will take on the projects. We are also hoping to set up a
motion picture production entity called Amerilanka Entertainment to
produce American movies for the international market,” he concluded. |
