The historical tale of Vijaya-Kuveni is to be made into a film by well-known playwright and award winning actor, Sugath Samarakoon as a massive cinematic venture.
The preproduction has been started and workshops are being conducted with the massive cast in Colombo and other parts of the country. The film is produced by Amila Moremada for Sinethro Creations.
Samarakoon well-known for his controversy ridden plays like ‘Uthure Rahula Himi’ and ‘Commando Diyasena’ in 1980s has returned to the limelight with a story of the ‘Mahawamsa’. The script of Samarakoon has been passed by the National Film Corporation as an excellent one.
The script had been written under the guidance of expert historian Professor Mendis Rohanadheera and Suddahamy a retired principal who is well versed in the story which relates to Lanka’s royal lineage.
Over the last ten years Sugath had been in England studying cinema specializing on acting, script writing and directing and the film script of Vijaya-Kuveni story was the thesis he prepared for his studies.
“This is an all time story of power struggle and conspiracy in politics. It is an excellent example of political conspiracy in world history. I have written it without distorting the historical story yet making it into a fine narrative,” said Sugath speaking about his script.
The stellar roles in the story are played by Ravindra Randeniya, Sriyantha Mendis, Buddhadasa Vithanachchi, Roger Seneviratne, Duleeka Marapana, Senaka Wijesinghe, Sisil Perera, Stanley Krishnaratne, Sandun Wijesiri, Gamini Jayalath and Wasantha Dukgannarala.
At present the extra cast is being trained at Chilaw and Kurunegala, the areas where the historical story was said to have taken place and the locations from the same area will be used for the shooting.
The hunt for Kuveni
The director Sugath Samarakoon is searching for an actress to play the main role of Kuweni.
The role is so complex and I was not satisfied with any of the actresses I came across so far. “Kuveni is a queen and yet is full of feminine innocence. Even though we were thinking of one veteran actress she could not join us due to a personal reason’ Sugath said.
Sugath made an open invitation to any veteran or new actress to take up the challenging role. The applicant must be more than 5.5’’ tall fairly well built and should have elegant faminine features together with the talent to dance and act and could contact SINETHRO Creations, S. De S. Jayasinghe Mawatha, Kohuwela, Nugegoda and telephone no 0112826668.
Creative and controversial journey of Samarakoon
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| Director Sugath Samarakoon |
Acclaimed playwright and award winning actor Sugath Samarakoon started his creative journey with the play ‘Amalbiso’ produced in 1976.
He later produced more controversial plays like ‘Deshapaluwa’, ‘Comando Diyasena’ and ‘Uthure Rahula Himi’ which was censored by the then government.
As a film actor Sugath played in ‘Adhisthanaya’ in 1982 for which he won OCIC award. His role in ‘Viyaru Minisa’ in 1992 won him a Sarasavi award.
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