“The Newspaper” was awarded the best film of the year 2020 at the 35th Lux Sarasaviya Awards held recently. Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardena, H. D. Premasiri and Ravindra Guruge are the producers. Since the leading role of the director of a film is evaluated by the best director award, the owners of the best film award are its producers.
This year’s 2020 best film award for the film “The Newspaper” will be special for Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardena as he has won the award as the best producer three times in the history of the Sarasaviya awards (Suddilage Kathawa – 1986, Sirimadura – 1990, The Newspaper – 2024).
As Dr. Bandula Gunawardena is the only producer who has been awarded the Sarasaviya award three times, it is timely to take a deep look at his seminal mark in Sri Lankan cinema. Before “The Newspaper” was awarded as the best film of the year 2020, the citation was read as follows. “The award for the best film of the year 2020 is given to “The Newspaper” for being a social satirical vessel in which social dynamics are sharply, ruthlessly and realistically observed, and the sleaze of the front institutions and leaders is exposed with a satirical vision.”
Relatively speaking, there are fewer producers who spend money on arthouse films than those who invest money in popular cinema. The reason for this was that throughout the history of cinema, the majority of arthouse films have not achieved commercial success.
From the director’s point of view, the popular cinema is the simple entertainment of the mass audience. But the artistic current is for those who have a strong sense of enjoyment. In any country, those who have inherited the power of subtle enjoyment through intelligence, life practice, and multifaceted knowledge are rare. Given these facts, what is the reason that most of the films in the artistic stream do not achieve commercial success?
All the films produced by Dr. Bandula Gunawardena (although some films have the characteristics of popular cinema) belong to the artistic (classic) or cinematographic trend. Rather than simply making a profit by producing a film, his main aim was to give his producer tradition to a sophisticated, artistic cinematographic, experimental, innovative feature (Avant garde). All the films produced by Dr. Gunawardena so far, which have won international awards, are proof of that. Almost all his films touch on socio-centric realism, except for “Thunveni Yaamaya” (which focuses on individual-centric realism).
He entered film production at a time when the golden age of cinema was ending and crises were emerging. During the golden age of cinema in the 70s, its audience was 74.4 million. After 1979, until now, that audience has gradually declined. In the 80s, when such crises were gradually emerging, he entered film production. His school days set the stage for producing award-winning feature films.
Milestones
Dr. Bandula Gunawardena studied at the Lumbini Maha Vidyalaya, where the Lumbini Theatre was also located. It was the pinnacle of stage theatre at that time. The premieres of the country’s leading stage plays, which became milestones, were often held at the Lumbini Theatre. Although he studied in the higher level commerce section, he was blessed to have the company of the leading dramatists of the country as a student leader of the school.
Thus he came to be acquainted with Ediriweera Sarachchandra, Dayananda Gunawardena, Sugathapala de Silva, Dr. Henry Jayasena, Simon Navagattegama, Dharmasiri Bandaranaike and so on. Dr. Bandula Gunawardena later became an economics teacher. Victor Ramanayake, who was acting in Dharmasiri Bandaranaike’s drama “Eka Adhipati” at that time, was one of the students. Dharmasiri Bandaranaike was introduced to Dr. Bandula Gunawardena by Victor. At that time, Dharmasiri was working as a Government clerk.
This was the period when he had written the screenplay of the movie “Hansa Wilak” and was trying to make it into a movie. As Dr. Bandula Gunawardena told me once, the capital Dharmasiri Bandaranaike had to produce this film was a Morris car and an investment account of the People’s Bank. He tried to get Rs 50,000 as a loan from People’s Bank.
Due to the inability to secure the funds, the production of this seminal movie was delayed. Later, Dharmasiri Bandaranaike produced “Thunweni Yaamaya” (1983) under the National Film Corporation’s 100 percent loan scheme. But because the loan amount was not enough, this film could not be screened.
Dr. Bandula Gunawardena entered the film industry as a co-producer fulfilling this requirement. Thunweni Yaamaya was thus screened to critical and popular acclaim. Dr. Lester James Peiris film “Delowak Athara” (1966) was an extension of the psycho-radical cinema trend that was introduced in Sri Lankan cinema. Dharmasiri was inspired by Czechoslovakian cinema for this. Dr. Premasiri Kemadasa’s memorable, revolutionary theme music included in it is a strong landmark in the country’s film music. The film won four Sarasaviya awards.
While Dr. Bandula Gunawardena gradually gained enough financial standing to produce a film without a bank loan, he simultaneously became one of the most popular teachers in the country teaching economics to tens of thousands of students. After that, he turned his attention to the production of the film “Suddilage Kathawa”. It was based on the novel by Simon Navagattegama. Shooting was done in Anuradhapura. Actors like Swarna Mallawaarachchi, Cyril Wickramage, Joe Abeywickrama, Somi Ratnayake, Nilanthi Wijesinghe, Lalitha Sarachchandra and others participated in this and Dr. Bandula Gunawardena won the Sarasaviya Award for the best production of the year for the first time for this film, which won eight Sarasaviya awards in 1986.
Political arena
Dr. Bandula Gunawardena got the opportunity to attend an international film festival for the first time with the movie “Suddilage Kathawa”. At that time, he had not entered the political arena and had not entered married life either. Gamini Weragama, the popular film critic of the day, described it like this: “The main reason for the film’s excellence is the superb acting. Swarna Mallawarachchi’s performance as Suddi is the best performance in Sinhala cinema in the last decade”.
In the late 80s, veteran camera director Andrew Jayamanna told Dr. Bandula Gunawardena that a good screenplay titled Sirimadura has been written by Simon Navagattegama and to read it.
Through the movie “Sirimadura”, Parakrama Niriella entered the stage of feature cinema. Veteran actor Ravindra Randeniya portrayed a challenging role in his acting career in the movie “Sirimadura”. The role of Sampath Hamu, who is disabled after a car accident, had no space to express his feelings through verbal gestures. Therefore, Ravindra Randeniya had to portray this role by giving priority to hand gestures. He was adjudged the best actor in the Sarasaviya awards ceremony.
Malini Fonseka and Anoja Weerasinghe in the movie “Sirimadura” did full justice to their roles as they were engaged in a confrontation, side by side. “Sirimadura” represented Sri Lanka at many international film festivals. For the second time, Dr. Bandula Gunawardena won the Sarasaviya award for the best production for “Sirimadura”. This film received eight awards at the 1990 Sarasaviya Awards.
It will be remembered that Professor Sucharita Gamlath said the following about “Sirimadura”. “This movie expands the horizons of our intellect to outline the movement of the society we live in. Any work of art that asks questions like who are we? Where do we live? What is our attitude? Is infallible proof that it is a good work of art”.
“Suddilage Kathawa” and “Sirimadura” were screened for more than 100 days and earned the audience’s attention. It is not often that arthouse films become commercially successful. Veteran journalist and writer Denagama Siriwardena wrote the novel “Ayoma” based on a true story for the Island Newspaper. This drew Dr. Bandula Gunawardena’s attention and he produced this film, with Niriella directing.
Bombs
Here, the late Jackson Anthony’s acting skills were appreciated at the 1996 Sarasaviya Awards. “Ayoma” (1995) was screened at a time when the ethnic crisis in the North and the East was escalating and bombs were exploding all over the country and people were living in fear and doubt. On the other hand, the local film industry was also declining due to various reasons.
Dr. Bandula Gunawardena was also devoting himself more to the political field. After a silence of about two decades, Dr. Bandula Gunawardena was preparing to produce a film based on the murder of well-known journalist and dramatist Richard de Soyza and assigned it to veteran cinema artiste Nilendra Deshapriya.
Veteran actress Swarna Mallawaarachchi was chosen to portray the role of Manorani Saravanamuttu, the main character. The Muhurat ceremony was held, contracts were signed and advance money was paid to all the actors and actresses. As Dr. Bandula Gunawardena told me, the production of this film was banned by the Yahapalanaya Government.
Sarath Kothalawala, who was a student of Dr. Bandula Gunawardena, brought the screenplay of the movie “The Newspaper” which he wrote with Kumara Thirimadura, remembering his contribution to the movie “Tanha Rathi Raga”. Dr. Bandula Gunawardena who read this script liked it very much.
“At that time, the world media had tarnished the image of Sri Lanka very badly. The world media created a perception that we are a brutal and murderous nation. I also had to face the practical experiences of media activity in this country. That’s why I thought that this film about the reality of the media should be produced.
I thought that if both Sarath and Kumara direct this film, it will be a world record. It is very special that the two who wrote the screenplay directed and acted in it. Not only did Kumara Thirimadura and Sarath Kothalawala, who were well-known as stage drama and teledrama artists, enter the direction of this film, they also won international awards and received many awards in Sri Lanka.
So I feel that this is my most correct decision as a producer. After that, I thought that we should launch a program that gives meaning to new directors to create their first films. Accordingly, award-winning producer H. D. Premasiri and Ravindra Guruge and I joined the “Tamara Cine Roo” production company,” Dr. Bandula Gunawardena said.
As the next step, at the request of Prof. Ariyaratne Athugala, who had created stage dramas and teledramas until then, he produced the film “Saho” (2023) to mark his entry into feature cinema. This is a university themed movie. Despite having cinematic features, unfortunately it did not receive enough critical attention and wide discussion. It however won many international awards. The recent Covid pandemic and social, economic and political crises also caused this.
“Our producers were afraid to make and screen films during the Covid pandemic. Afterwards, I accepted that challenge and screened “The Newspaper”. Then other producers also started screening films. Although I introduced Parakrama Niriella to film direction and got him to make two films, the fact that he did not contribute to a film after that is a waste of the creative energy of a talented director like him.
Therefore, I got him to make a film again. It is called “Sihina Kumari” (Dream Princess). It is a different kind of creation with only two main characters. Apart from this, my other film production, which is now completely finished, is “Adara Anthaya”. It was directed by Ashoka Athawudahetty.”
“One of the biggest crises in the country today is the foreign exchange crisis. My future hope is to make films as an industry that can earn foreign exchange for the country. At the 13th Bangalore Film Festival, we received a cash prize of US$ 3000 when “The Newspaper” was awarded as the second best film in Asia.”
Dr. Bandula Gunawardena won the best production/film award for the third time at the last Sarasaviya awards ceremony held on March 28 for the movie “The Newspaper”. Apart from the artistic and cinematographic highlights, the blend of popular features found in the currently popular Tamil and Telugu films appearing in this film is sure to have led to such an award. This film won a total of eight Sarasaviya awards.
Films that reveal the reality of the media landscape in Sri Lanka are very rare in the history of Sri Lankan cinema. In retrospect, I am reminded of one earlier Sri Lankan film where the director’s intention was to reveal the reality of local media. D. B. Varnasiri’s “Satyagrahana” (1987) was that film. In the past, the censorship of the media was prominent. The second is “The Newspaper”. Therefore, it will definitely become a landmark of Sri Lankan cinema as a pivotal work that has received international and local appreciation based on a rare theme in Asia and even in the world.
