• ABC goes islandwide
• Teenage Valentine Ball
• 'Talent Discovery 2000'
• 'Undaya' : a treat for local filmgoers
• Presidential Awards at last
• Old Films on show
• "Khemadasa Theory, practical and struggle"
• Serendib's well kept secret
• Dragon fest at AGH

ABC goes islandwide

By Sanath Weerasuriya

Asia Broadcasting Corporation (Pvt) Limited expanded the coverage of their popular radio channels, Sun FM, Gold FM, Hiru, Tharu and Sooriyan FM on an islandwide basis from January 21.

Asia Broadcasting Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. launched in July 1998, revolutionized the broadcasting industry in Sri Lanka having five channels.

Sun FM which caters to an audience of 13 to 35 years, focusing on Radio popular music, sports and news geared towards the interests of this group.

Sun 99.9 FM one of the market leaders in the overall English Radio Market is adding value to its present base. A whole new vista of entertainment for listeners in Kandy and other English speaking areas islandwide, offering the best in popular music, building aspirations, creating lifestyle and making you feel young at heart.

Sun FM operates on 99.9 FM Kandy and Colombo and on 95.3 FM Islandwide.

Hiru FM - again caters to the same age group for the Sinhala audience. Hiru's popularity is attributed to the fact that we provide quality, focused entertainment for this audience.

With the expanded coverage, all Sinhala listeners are in for a surprise. Raynor Silva, Managing Director stated that Hiru FM will definitely hit the top spot within the next six months.

Hiru FM is now on 107.9 Colombo and Kandy and 102.9 Islandwide.

Sooriyan FM a popular Tamil Station caters to a mass audience and has become extemely popular since its launch. Successfully weathering competition from other such stations that have since entered the arena, Sooriyan's popularity can be attributed to its innovative format together with veteran and fresh new DJ's that give the Tamil listeners modern, quality music, entertainment, current affairs programs and news from a Tamil point of view.

Sooriyan FM operates on 103.2 Colombo, 97.3 Kandy and 97.9 Islandwide.

Gold FM - "Keeping the seventies alive", caters to a 25 plus audience. The only oldies radio station in Sri Lanka. An uninterruped 24-hour trip down memory lane! Gold FM plays a mix of A/C folk, country, jazz, R & B and disco music from the 60s through to the early 80's, with minimum talk.

Gold FM is the only 70's oldies station playing back to back music for all lovers of music from the 70's and goldmine for all young people who are looking to experience this golden era of music.

Gold FM now comes alive on 89.8 Colombo 90.9 Kandy and 93.0 Islandwide.

Tharu FM a Sinhala language station catering to a 25 plus audience that brings back memories from Sri Lanka's golden era of music - the 70's and 80's. Unforgettable music, innovative concepts, uninterrupted favourites that you can sing along to.

Tharu FM operation on 96.7 Colombo, 94.7 Kandy and 104.2 Islandwide.

Teenage Valentine Ball

The Teenage Valentine Ball organised by Soul Entertainments in Association with the Leo Club of Thimbirigasyaya 306 C will be held at the Blue Leopard Night Club on February 12, 2000 from 2.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.

This first teen Valentine Ball of the millennium will feature popular night club & Radio DJs such as Tom Heart, Viran, Sam & Ramly, Manju, DJ Mohan, DJ Black, Crazy Jay Frpm, and London Soul DJS with Favourite Big Daddy 'B" Bunty as master of ceremonies. Bathiya and Santhush along with Natasha from the Dream Team, Dejavo will feature as guest artistes.

Selection of Valentine king and queen, best dancing couple, most romantic couple, kissing competitions, paper dancing, sexiest legs are some of the competitions billed at the Valentine ball.

Tickets are at Rs. 200/- and the female partner will get free entrance. No liquor and tobacco will be allowed inside the discotheque. This party is specially designed for the teens who are not getting a chance to go out in the night to celebrate the real Valentine.

The event is sponsored by Daily Milk, Rice B & Famous and Majestic City. Media sponsors is the TV Times.

'Talent Discovery 2000'

'Talent Discovery 2000', the first talent contest of the century will be held at the Trinity College Hall on March 25.

This contest is strictly for the contestants from the Central Province. Dream Team, the most popular band in Kandy's music circuit, will provide music for the contest.

The preliminaries will be worked out during the months of February and early March.

The grand finale will be on March 25 with Dream Team and other guest stars.

In another valiant effort to tap the abilities and bring to the limelight the enormous talent in Kandy, the organisers have embarked on a millennium effort in 'Talent Discovery 2000'.

The last such effort to produce and highlight the talent of Kandy was in the year 1993, when the Lions Club of Kandy organised such an event. Since then no individual or organisation has contemplated to organise anything like this.

The staff of Sinhaputra Finance Ltd., Kandy has now come forward to do their duty to all Kandy citizens.

The contest will be worked out in two categories - 'Group Singing' and 'Individual'. There will be three age groups - under 12, under 19 and over 19. Applicants should be within these age groups as at 31/03/2000.

The auditions for the contest will be on February 19. The semi finals will be worked out on March 4.

If you are interested, please fill in the application form appearing in the TV Times and deliver or post it to, Talent Discovery 2000, Sinhaputra Finance Ltd., No. 11, Hill Street, Kandy on or before February 2, 2000.

'Undaya' : a treat for local filmgoers

Sinhala film viewers will get the opportunity to see another film produced and directed by renowned film maker K.A.W Perera.

Story of this new film Undaya (Bullet) revolving around a family in the era of terror in late 80s will be released on 'Fifth Circuit' from February 4.

The story of 'Undaya' centres on an unemployed graduate name Murthi . Though he has all the educational qualifications, lack of English blocks all his chances .

His younger sister Sarala too is an educated girl yet unemployed so they are compelled to make their living by rubber tapping. They resolve to join revolutionary forces which were raising their heads at that time to fight against the wealthy, whom they think are responsible for their poverty and lack of opportunities.

At this time Murthi is being arrested on a false murder charge and Sarala meets with an accident. A medical student Jayadeva rescues Sarala and gives shelter at his home. His father an army officer in charge of a detention camp is a kind hearted person and understands the cause of the problem.

Not knowing that the girl was involved with a revolutionary group and police were on the look out for her, he offers shelter to Salala at his home.

Sangeetha Weeraratne, Priyankara Perera, Sathischandra Edirisinghe, Channa Perera, Rathna Sumanapala, Edna Sugathapala, Nimal Wickramaarachchi.star in Undaya and the music for the film is by Shelton Premaratne

Samitha Mudunkotuwa. rendered her voice for most of the songs.

Presidential Awards at last

By Sanath Weerasuriya

The Presidential Awards on Films, one of the biggest ceremonies for the local film industry, will be held on February 11 at 6 pm at the BMICH Colombo

Forty one Sinhala films screened during the period of1997 and 1998 have been considered for the above awards ceremony and there will be 18 awards for each year's winning films in different categories.

The ceremony has been organised this year after a lapse of two years and the Chairman of the film Corporation Tissa Abeysekara said this year's Presidential Awards Ceremony is organised by the NFC at a cost of rupees five million with the financial assistance from the State

The Awards Ceremony will be telecast live over Rupavahini. Also a new procedure.will be followed at the Rupavahini in connection with this year's ceremony. A ten minute promotional programmes on daily basis will be telecast on Rupavahini at 7.30 pm and the public will have a chance to see the details in brief on films screened during the relevant period under this programme.

An exhibition has also been organised by the NFC in collaboration with the Department of Information and it will be held at the BMICH from February 4.

Several special awards to be presented at this year's ceremony.

Two 'Swarna Sinha Awards', the B. S. Perera Award for the best music director, D. M. Nandanakeerthi Award for the best lyricist, Eddie Jayamanne Award for the best comedian are some of the new inclusions a the this year's awards ceremony. A cash prize of Rs. 150,000 and 80,000 feet of film rolls will be awarded to Prasanna Withanage who brought international fame to the Sri Lankan film industry

The'festival of films' will start on February 10 and the schedule will be announced in the newspapers .

The public can enjoy both the exhibition and the films festival by purchasing a ticket priced at Rs. 10. School shows will also be held. The funds collected from the tickets will be used for a project implemented by the NFC to provide financial assistance to former artistes.

. The Corporation also plans to launch a publication comprising 20 articles about the Sri Lankan film industry to mark this occasion and another two publications on the services rendered by B. S. Perera and D. M. Nandanakeerthi and will be distributed among the participants free of charge.

Old Films on show

Old Films from the era of 50's and 60's will be on screened again at the BMICH. At a time the younger generation needs more information about the history of indigenous film industry, National Film Corporation while giving an opportunity for the youngsters to know about the artistic skills of the past generation makes way for the senior citizens to spend a few hours in their past, through a series of film shows released in the early stages of Sri Lankan film industry.

The festival programs of old movies and an exhibition, which contain old songs, old film discs, antique camera equipment and posters will be held as a forerunner with the Film Presidential Award Ceremony, by the National Film Corporation.

The programs will be held at the BMICH from February 5 to 10.

The exhibition will be held at the lobby of the BMICH and each day it will be open from 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. for the public, who can enter free of charge. The movies will be held at the cinema hall at BMICH and the show times are 10.00 a.m., 2.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. each day for the public, Tickets are priced at Rs. 10/- each and are available at the National Film Corporation- Colombo 7.

"Khemadasa Theory, practical and struggle"

By Susitha R. Fernando

He was a man who went beyond the tradition, but he never completely forgot the tradition.

Premasiri Khemadasa a rare gift to a country like Sri Lanka who reached sixty third milepost in his life as a musician on the 25th, will be in concert tomorrow.

The book titled " Khemadasa Theory, practical and struggle" will be launched at 5 p.m. at the Elphinstone Theatre, Maradana. A he cassette titled "Dambaranwallen Dhoramadalata" including new songs and cantata sung by singers Amarasiri Peries, Ivor Dennis, W.D. Ariyasena and students of "Khemadasa Foundation", a music school started by Premasiri Khemadasa in order to teach music to those who did not get chance study music and its members. This will include all new compositions and a cantata "Pirinivan Mangallaya" (Death of Lord Buddha) which would be the first Buddhist cantata. A Musical Concert also will held at 7 p.m. followed by the book and cassette launching.

Premasiri Khemadasa famous as "Khemadasa Master" had given birth to masterpieces in his concert including all new songs and cantata in his journey of creating music.

Born to a family of nine in Thalpitiya Wadduwa Khemadasa was the youngest in the family. He studied at Sri Sumangala Vidyalaya, Panadura and St' John's College. Khemadasa showed signs to be a good musician while he was a student by playing a flute. Later he proved this when he joined the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporator as a flutist.

Later Premasirir Khemadasa also became a film music director and made a revolution in the directing music in the famous films of Lester James Peries' 'Golu Hadawatha', 'Nidhanaya' and others.

Premasiri Khemadasa invites everyone for the concert for which entrance will be free.

Serendib's well kept secret

The hotels coming under the purview of Serendib Leisure presented all their in-house guests with what was probably one of the most unique millennium gifts, on January 1,2000.

All the guests in the hotel were served their breakfast on a special souvenir plate with the wording, "I had my first meal for year 2000 on this plate". After breakfast, the plate was washed, packed and given to each guest as a souvenir.

Every single guest considered this as one of the most unique and important gifts that they had received. All of them said that they would cherish the gift with fond memories of the millennium.

The main idea for this was mooted some months ago by the Serendib Leisure management team, but it was kept a well-guarded secret to prevent competitors getting hold of the idea and copying it.

Dragon fest at AGH

The Chinese New Year, which dawns on February 5 ushers in the Year of the Dragon.

Golden Dragon restaurant of the Airport Garden Hotel celebrates this significant advent in the Chinese Calendar with the Menu of special Chinese preparations.

Master Chef Geng Tao from China will demonstrate his skills in fine cooking making this traditional festivity a memorable one. Chinese New Year Festival lunch and dinner will be served on February 5 and 6 at the Golden Dragon Restaurant.

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