What happened to the Master's award?

One undisputed fact about Sri Lankan cinema is that Dr. Lester James Peries is the country's pioneer filmmaker who changed the journey of filmmaking from carbon copies of South Indian studio based stories to a cinema of creative celluloid depicting the reality in real settings.

Dr. Peries, who was present at the recently concluded Presidential Awards Ceremony, had been invited by the organisers to receive a special award. It was not only the audience, invitees and film lovers, but also the chief guest, the first citizen Mahinda Rajapaksa himself would have been wondering what happened to the award that was not forthcoming.

In fact this award was much publicised fact.

Dr. Peries who went to the award ceremony with the hope of receiving an award from the President at the Presidential Award ceremony on January 30 had to return home empty handed after a harassing stay from 5.00 to 11.00 pm at the BMICH.

‘It is true that we have won awards from different countries. But an award from the President of one's own country is the highest honour one can get. Whatever we have done, getting an award from the Head of State is a big thing. It was said that the award was for the services rendered to cinema’ said perplexed Dr. Peries when asked by the TV Times as to what had happened to the special award that was planned to be given by the National Film Corporation.

According to the spokesman from the NFC at the press conference held at the Galadari to brief the press about the ceremony there was a special award to be given to Dr. Peries. Accordingly the media did not forget to announce this significant fact and the President who is a lover of cinema himself must have seen this and made it a point not to miss the moment to honour the country's senior most filmmaker.

What happened to the award? Who made the blunder? Who was responsible for this atrocious insult and unforgivable lapse? When contacted, NFC Chairman Ashoka Serasinghe flatly denied that it promised any awards to Dr. Peries.

‘We are not bound to give awards and we never promised that we will give a special award. We did not send Dr. Peries a special invitation’ Mr. Serasinghe said.

Since he was also competing for the best director award we decided not to give him any special award. It was at the last moment on January 18 we were informed that his latest film 'Ammawarune' would also be included for the run. So we arranged an award to be given on January 22 at the opening of new digital cinema theatre at the NFC premises.

However the award plaque at the NFC premises on that was to be given by the young filmmaker Prasanna Jayakody to Dr. Peries and a similar one to be given to Mr. Jayakody. But Dr. Peries who was not well that day could not attend the ceremony and on behalf of him Ms. Sumithra Peries accepted the award.

Could this award or plaque presented by a young director could be equate with an award handed over by the President of the country at a rare occasion like a Presidential Award?

And there is a serious question as to how NFC Chairman arranged an award within three to four days following Dr. Peries' announcement of his wish to compete for the Presidential Award on January 18.

The NFC chairman also accused the media for giving undue publicity to the issue. The media reported what was announced at the Galadari Hotel briefing at the risk of starting unwanted debate.

We stand firmly on what was reported. It is that Dr. Peries will be given a special award at the Presidential Award 2007. We also appreciate the fact which has come to our knowledge that the President himself has personally apologised to Dr. Peries on the lapse that occurred at the Presidential Awards.

Finally over to the NFC that seems to be the demigod that dishes out special award according to their whims and fancies, with apologies to the prestigious jury that does not deal with them (Special awards)