‘Yathra’ competes at Kathmandu
Multi awarded film ‘Yathra’ (The Voyage) directed by Christy Shelton Fernando will be competing in the main section of the 4th Nepal International Film in Kathmandu held from May 6 to 10.
‘Yathra’, winner of number of international awards and acclaims, is produced by veteran actress and producer SriyaniAmarasena. The other co-producers are RuwanJayasinghe, LilaniPerera and NiranjalaSarojini.
Director Christy Shelton Fernando
The stellar cast of ‘Yathra’ includes SriyaniAmarasena, Senali Fonseka, Lakshman Mendis, Cletus Mendis, Saranga Dissanayake, SriyanthaMendis, PabodhaSandeepani and Roshan Pilapitiya.
‘Yathra’ has represented Sri Lanka at nine international film festivals around the world so far and has won multiple awards. It won the award for the Best Narrative Feature film at the DRUK International Film Festival and Calcutta International Film Festival, the Best Film award (Drama Category) at the International Film Festival Los Angeles, the Best Film Overall Winner at the Madras International Film Fest andthe Best Camera Award for AyeshmanthaHettiarachchiat Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival.
Scripted by ArunaJayawardana, NavaratneGamage has written the musical score, SunethNandalal the art director and MeghaColombage is the editor. IndikaUdarahandled the make-up department
while AjithLiyanagewas the
assistant director.
“There is a major issue with regard to releasing of films right now. With the Covid-19 pandemic this is a problem faced by the entire cinema world,” said Christy Shelton Fernando who has seen the ups and down of Sri Lankan cinema over the last 40 years.
“We cannot depend on cinema halls only. It is very clear that cinema is moving away from traditional theatres and this was inevitable. Even if Corona pandemic was not there this change was taking place. The worldwide pandemic was only expedited this change,” Christy explained.
“However alternative platforms have been created for cinema now. Today we watch films using mobile phones and internet. Anyway our internet usage is very low at present so it might take little more time. There are many who watch teledramas on the mobile phones now. There is also a considerable number of film lovers who use Netflix,”.
“I am ready for this change,” said Christy who constantly updates himself on cinema and its new trends.
“This is only the change of the generation. We have been watching cinema in the massive widescreen in cinema halls and some of those in our generation is little reluctant to watch on this alternative platforms. But to be frank technically we have best sound quality on these new mobile phones than most of our cinema halls”.
Entered the world of cinema in 1981 as the co-script writer and assistant to veteran filmmaker VasanthaObeysekara in his film ‘The Hunt (Dadayama)’, Christy has four decades of experience in cinema, teledrama and other audio-visual media. At the first ten years of his career, he worked as an assistant director to many veterans in cinema such as Titus Thotatawatte, H.D. Premarathna, MalaniFonseka, AnandaAbeynayaka, Benet Rathnayaka and Bertram Nihal.
With his enormous experience, Christy says now filmmakers should find alternative ways to screen their films and the government should also make a system to screen Sri Lankan films in foreign countries where Sri Lankans live.
“The government can organise this through our diplomatic missions in abroad. This is a great support government can give for to cinema,” Christy said.
“We cannot cover the cost now screening films in local theatres only. This will discourage producers as well. There is
already a dearth in producers
in Sri Lanka,”.
He also views the production cost of films also need to be cut down as Sri Lankan cinema cannot afford massive budgets. There are independent filmmakers who make low-budget films and there are specially designed films for foreign film festivals as well.
Started with ‘Aragalaya’Christy sees that the technology in cinema only a medium and what is needed is to use it creatively and effectively. “Unfortunately our younger generation thinks cinema is only technology. They have placed their faith on what could be done through technology. But even today what I believe is that people get attracted to films made on humanity and about people. Even newest platforms like Netflix give priority to strong stories,” said Christy with his long experience in cinema. “It is obvious we cannot make films like Star Wars. But we can talk about the subjects and issues and create stories that would emotionally move the world. That is the way for us to reach international standard in cinema. This is one of the problems with some of our younger generation filmmakers. We can learn the technology behind cinema in one week. Yet technology is not cinema. We cannot do technological gimmicks with the limited resources we have. We saw some of Sri Lankans tried to do it and what the result was. We cannot reach this international standard or even can think about it”.
Having worked in cinema and television, Christy believes that he still needs to be updated and educate himself.Christy strongly believes that the filmmaker should constantly educate himself and get updated both technologically and artistically. “Sometimes having completed my own work, I think certain things could have done differently,” he said.
Qualified in Mass communication and Journalism from the University of Sri Jayawardanapura, Christy has made over 30 serialized TV drams, 11 one-act tele dramas, semi-feature films, documentary films, TV documentaries, and commercial advertisements written scripts and directed four films ‘Aragalaya’ (1994), ‘Indrakeelaya’ (2000), ‘ThahanamGaha’ (2002) and ‘Yathra’ (2019). (SF)
