Mirror Magazine

It’s a fact that some people achieve more than others in their chosen fields. Adding to their repertoire of numerous professional achievements, Bathiya and Santhush had yet another noteworthy milestone recently. Interviewed by BBC World a few weeks ago on their music and the Sri Lankan entertainment industry, they fall into a handfull of Sri Lankans, most of them eminent political personalities, to be featured on the international television channel.

A part of ‘Refreshingly Sri Lanka,’ a cultural programme held to promote Sri Lanka in the tourist market, B‘n’S joined other local artistes at a grand variety show at Trafalgar Square, London, last month. Depicting Sri Lankan culture and history, together with ethno energy and modern Sri Lankan pop culture, the artistes entertained and impressed the 8,000-strong audience.

“After the show we received a call from BBC requesting us to share some views on our music, as well as our future plans for the Sri Lankan music industry. We realised that this would be a perfect opportunity to promote Sri Lanka even more. So we accepted the invitation, and prepared to give it our best shot,” says Santhush.

Though they have been interviewed on television for numerous programmes before, being on BBC was obviously a different ball game. “When you get a platform such as this, you need to put in everything you’ve got to do the maximum for your country. But when you know that you’re going live to two hundred countries, you cannot afford to make mistakes; it’s quite an experience!” he added, talking about the interview. The duo had absolutely no time to prepare for the interview, and so had to be ready for questions covering any aspect.

According to Santhush, the host of the programme was extremely well informed about their professional career, and had done in-depth research into the duo’s history in the Sri Lankan music industry. “It was obvious that this guy really knew what he was talking about, and so we had to be on our feet throughout the interview,” he said.

The interview panel also included Imran Saiboo, from Funtime Entertainment, producer of the show for ‘Refreshingly Sri Lanka.’ “He was very well versed on the entire Asian music scene, so that added to the fact that we needed to be extremely aware of what we were saying!”

“What made it all worthwhile was the positive feedback we received after the interview. We had phone calls from Sri Lankans from all over the world, who had watched the interview, saying very simply that they were proud to be Sri Lankan. That was the best part!” he added. The interview clearly will be a memorable one for B‘n’S on both a professional level, as well as a very personal level.