Taken hostage

A membrane looms large between reality and fiction as you settle comfortably in the 3D glasses with Sunil Ariyaratne’s latest offspring on the widescreen: Vijayaba Kollaya. Ariyaratne is gradually making a home in filmmaking leaving his familiar turf of lyric-writing.

The Daily News encounters the director and the producer of Vijayaba Kollaya, Professor Sunil Ariyaratne and HD Premasiri, on several grounds. Filmmaking and producing are nothing new to Ariyaratne and Premasiri. They have roamed parallel tracks making and producing films but seems to have developed a new partnership with their previous blockbuster, Yasodhara.

Premasiri’s mainstay is publishing and hospitality industry, whereas Ariyaratne is an emeritus professor. They have nevertheless been in the cinema industry for a few decades, if not years. Their combination really came to pass with Yasodhara, and the rest became history with their partnership extended towards the latest blockbuster, Vijayaba Kollaya.

Blockbuster, too early to judge? Not really, for the movie has raked in a bigger bundle of money within the first week than Premasiri and Ariyaratne could with Yasodhara.

So to say, Ariyaratne admits that his is essentially a commercial movie.

“Art house movie aficionados would scoff at this movie. I can well accept their criticism mounted against Vijayaba, but the truth is different. In Sri Lanka, we need commercial movies to sustain the cinema industry. We need art house movies, but they cannot last long in the theatres.”

About five halls were closed recently, the academic cum filmmaker adds. Vijayaba Kollaya entered the scene when Prasanna Jayakody’s Sansaraye Dadayakkaraya was running. Kollaya is abduction or kidnapping in English. The talk in the town was on how Ariyaratne’s commercial movie kidnapped Jayakody’s art-house production.

HD Premasiri, on the other hand, has produced only art-house movies with the exception of Vijayaba Kollaya (a commercial movie on Ariyaratne’s own admission)

“Buddhi Keerthisena had the rights of the script as well as the book. But the budget was getting above the average means. So I undertook the project. I was anyway willing to undertake the project, as I had already worked with Professor Ariyaratne,” Premasiri remarks.

Premasiri produced his debut film in 1979. The film was released in 1982. Sunil Ariyaratne recalls the procedures that existed back then.

“When DB Nihalsinghe was the General Manager, the filmmakers had to make a short film before entering the industry. There was an examination involved too. I also faced that exam. My application number was FD 87. Even the established filmmakers were registered. Nihalsinghe had a reason to create such an environment. Back then, even the production manager would take over the director’s role within a few days. Sometimes, you never know if the tea boy also took over the role. Nihalsinghe wanted to stop this and introduce professionalism to the filmmaker’s role.”

Sadly, however, the scheme ceased to be in force with Nihalsinghe leaving the position.

Adding to Ariyaratne’s memory bank was Premasiri who recalled the script bank.

“When you take a script from the bank, you will naturally get a bank loan. The experienced filmmakers received a 100 per cent loan,” Premasiri adds.

It was extended, as Ariyaratne remembers, with Tissa Abeysekara implementing the Cinema Development Fund during his tenure as the National Film Corporation Chairman.

“The Fund offered Rs 50 lakhs to 12 filmmakers. Inoka Satyangani, Jayantha Chandrasiri and Linton Semage emerged thanks to that fund. Only two films were unsuccessful.”

Vijayaba Kollaya is released to theatres in 80 copies. About 28 are 3D copies while the rest is 2D.

“We met two youths experimenting on the 3D technology. We thought why not make this film in 3D. 3D Sinhala movies may not be a new concept. But Vijayaba is the first movie shot in 3D. The previous films were converted into 3D only later. On the other hand, Vijayaba demands 3D technology. It is a historical story. You see a lot of fights and bloodshed,” Ariyaratne says.

The 3D team was in the location. They knew which shot to take. In fact, they asked several scenes to be shot so as to make it 3D-friendly. The two-hour 18-minute film was converted into 3D simultaneously with 28,8000 frames edited by 24 teams on a shift basis.

The norm in the cinema industry is that the producer handpicks the director so that he can get the film done to his whims and fancies.

“The blame mounted against me is different,” Ariyaratne quips, “people say that I make films to fatten the producer’s wallet. And I agree with it. For instance, I make Premasiri rich. With that money, Premasiri can produce another art-house movie. In order to sustain this industry, someone has to make Premasiri rich. If the producers cannot generate money from commercial movies, how can you keep hopes in art house films?”

With that question, Ariyaratne identifies Premasiri as a unique producer.

“We have only a handful of regular producers. Even then, we have no regular producers of art-house films. We need at least 10 regular producers today,” Ariyaratne remarks.

“All I need is to do something complete,” Premasiri adds, “the satisfaction I exert is what matters. When there is a discussion about the film in the intellectual and other cultural circles, it makes me happy. The income might be peanuts. Or maybe no income at all. But that satisfaction is priceless.”

HD Premasiri, however, is brand-conscious. He would provide financial support to many films, but uses his name sparingly. “I have sponsored some films for the sake of friendship, but did not let them use my name.”

Vijayaba Kollaya takes us to the 16th century. It is a century beyond our imagination. How did Ariyaratne cope with that issue?

“The biggest problem was the location of the port. Sri Lanka does not have a single beach without a hotel in the vicinity. I don’t know how many kilometres we travelled looking for a beach without a hotel. Finally, we managed to find an area off Nonagama.”

Venuka Wickramarachchi, in charge of costumes, went to the UK to study the century and its apparel industry.

“We spent Rs 250 Lakhs alone on the set of Yasodhara. That was to create Kapilavastupura in Ranmihitenna. Costumes also cost a fortune. But it is rewarding. The crew is rewarded at the prominent award ceremonies.”

If art direction is not executed properly, Ariyaratne adds, the movie will turn out to be simply a Vesak play.

“Unlike earlier, an art director must be familiar with the technology. They must know how to combine graphics and other technological aspects. At the same time, they should have creativity.”

HD Premasiri faced a tough challenge when he produced Yasodhara.

“The proposal for Asandhimitta came while we were busy with Yasodhara. I tried to postpone. But then Handagama wanted to do it soon. Producing two films at once is a gargantuan task, but somehow I managed to do it.”

Professor Sunil Ariyaratne made films with different producers. HD Premasiri produced films with different filmmakers. They encountered each other once to work on Kusa Paba. That encounter was consolidated with HD Premasiri single-handedly sponsoring Yasodhara at an overwhelming budget. The solidarity was established with the duo laying the hands on another massive project, Vijayaba Kollaya.

Will their working partnership result in another project? Maybe... Or maybe not.