‘Kadira Divyaraja’ creates the story of God Kataragama
Samar Virmani
‘Kadira Divyaraja’, Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne’s newest cinematic venture creating the story of god Skandha or Kataragama and his love story with Walli, completed shooting and it is now being edited.
Prof. Ariyaratne, who is well-known for his stories relating to incidents and characters connected with religions, history and culture, has written the script of ‘Kadira Divyaraja’ based on the epic poetry Mahakavi Kalidasage’s ‘Kumara Sambhawa’ and the character of ‘Walli’ based on Sri Lankan folklore.
“God Skandha is the only deity, that comes across in both eastern and western literature, who is said to have married a human. He is well-respected and followed by believers in a number of countries in South Asia including India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore and there are also followers all over the world including some of the western countries,” said Prof. Ariyaratne. The well-known Sinhala lecturer and researcher said that it is interesting that God Skandha has over 40 names including god Kataragama, Subrahmanya, Kumara, Skanda and Murugan, and people from different parts of the world use different names. While in Sri Lanka he is popular as Skandha and Kataragama, in South India he is known as Murugan,” described the award winning filmmaker.
According to Sri Lankan folklore Walli who is brought up by indigenous Veddha community in Sri Lanka starts loving Skandha, a deity she has never seen. Skandha who is married to Devayanai, comes to know about this and visits Sri Lanka and gets married to Walli, who had loved and worship him for years.
“I had to be careful when creating the character of this deity as there are many devotees and followers. Their faith should not be disturbed and I had to handle the plot, characters, locations and almost everything carefully,” Prof. Ariyaratne said describing some of the challenges he had to face making the film.
Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne
Producer Dr. Ravi Liyanage
For this reason Prof. Ariyaratne had to employ two stars from India ; film, TV and theatre actor Samar Virmani and Indian actress Sonakshi Ravan, to play two lead roles of ‘Kadira Divyaraja’.
“In our culture there is a bad habit of attributing personal lives and conduct of artistes with the characters they play. Sometimes stars are judged by their personal lives and this could have affect negatively on the film,” said Prof. Ariyaratne.
Sri Lankan cast of the film includes Roshan Pilapitiya, Nilmini Tennakone, Jagath Chamila, Charith Abeysinghe, Wasanth Vittachchi, Deepa Ranasinghe, Sarath Kotalawela, Dhananjaya Siriwardena, Vinu Siriwardena, Harini Uthpala, Ajitha Shantha and few others.
Entire film was shot in and around Kataragama, the area where the deity and Walli are said to have lived. The location of the film could not be mountainous or wild with big trees. The film location that suits the authenticity of the story had to be a bushy and dry enviornment of Kataragama. The film was also shot in Ranminitenna film village, in deep Southern region.
The film also introduces new producer Dr. Ravi Liyanage, of Raigam company.
“Entering new producers to Sri Lankan cinema is a welcoming news as there is dearth in producers at present. I knew Ravi as a student of Sri Jayawardenapura and the idea of making a film together was there for more than seven years,”said Prof. Ariyaratne making his 24th film.
Behind the screen, cinematography by Channa Deshapriya, art director is Dhammika Hewaduwatta, production manager is Nimal Wijesiri Hewaduwatta, and editor is Tissa Surendra. Visual effects by Chamath Paranavithana, choreography by Sanka Abeysinghe, make up by Priyantha Dissanayake, music direction by Rohana Weerasinghe, production coordinator is A. D. Ranjithkumara. Playback singers are Nirosha Virajani and Ravin Kanishka. Story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics and direction is done by Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne as his 24th film.
Sonakshi Ravan
