Talented dramatist, actor, TV personality and
filmmaker, Jackson Anthony in his second attempt in film making is
to recreate the golden era of Sri Lankan history. “Aba” is the
historical story of Prince Pandukabhaya, the man who brought all
clans existing in the country under one rule. Jackson, himself a
historian, has brought to light the historical facts and figures to
create an authentic work of cinema. Jackson is now busy with its
pre-production and he disclosed and described to TV times his latest
venture and its background.
TV times: - What is the setting for Aba “?
Jackson:
The story for my film is set in the 4th Century BC. It is
about the rise of the of Ruhunu dynasty and the childhood of
kind Pandukabhaya. As a child he was called Aba and the story
unfoldds up to the age he becomes ‘Pandukabhaya’. There is a
belief that originally Sri Lankan nation started from ‘Vijaya’
but by the time Vijaya came to Sri Lanka there were over
hundreds of civilizations around the country. People of these
civilizations existed long after that event and even the present
generation carry their genes. The story of the film is a fact
which even rock inscriptions of the period of the Ruhunu Kingdom
bear proof.
We saw this with the recent box office Hollywood films like
The Lord of the Ring, Harry Potter or even the animation films
like Ice Age. These fall into the category of family films.
Earlier the definition for the family films was stories that
revolve around the issues of family. But this has changed now.
The same phenomenon is followed by Bollywood as well. Indian
cinema followed the historical love story of Radha and Krishna
who ran around trees and even today they follow the same love
story added with more colour and glamour. Presently, India also
borrows characters from fantasy and mythical tales of Maha
Bharatha and Ramayana. Instead of Hollywood characters like
‘Superman’ and ‘Spiderman’, Bollywood created Krish, the
character of Krishna.
BBut for my story I am creating a true realistic hero who
lived in this country during a certain era.
TVT : Do you think this trend of historical stories would
attract Sri Lankan audiences?
Jackson:
I believe the world trend is equally valid for Sri Lankan
audience as well and any survey done on world firm audience is
valid for Sri Lankan audience too. It has been found that the
audience accepts anything with an attractive structure making
use of rich technical quality. And I am sure, given an
attractive film with technological richness this film would
definitely be accepted by Sri Lankans.
TVT : Would this be an attempt to emphasize the importance
of the Sinhala race?
Jackson:
Nationalism and racism are two completely different concepts.
Nationalism is something very positive whereas racism is a
virus. But unfortunately, in our society nationalism had been
overtaken by racism and anybody with nationalistic feelings is
labeled a racist. And these two have been misinterpreted as one.
In fact, this is one reason why the younger generation does not
respect nationalistic ideas. We have to separate these two, but
we cannot do this by war. Like a swan which can separate water
from milk, I believe that it is only an artiste who could
separate nationalism from racism from our society.
My attempt is not to boost the morale of the army and
encourage war or to be a mouthpiece of those who propagate the
virus of racism. In fact at the time of ‘Pandukabhaya’ there was
no racial problem or ethnic differences yet he united all the
clans like ‘Yaksha’ etc., and brought them under one ruler.
TVT :- You have said that one of the purposes of this
film is to inject positive thinking in the country”
Jackson :
When we analyze history we can see the negative attitude
and backwardness which were there during the Gampola and Kotte
Kingdom eras and this became worse after subjugation by foreign
powers—a fact which even films depicted. Over the past 50 years
of cinema there were over 1050 films. But only six films were
based on history. They were Ashokamala (1947) Sirisangabo
(1952), Sandeshaya (1960), Sigiri Kashyapa (1966), Weera Puran
Appu (1978), and Weera Maddumabandara (1984). But even these
films were tragedies or stories about tragic heroes. But there
were important eras in our history which we have never
highlighted.
TVT : you think that this type of film would bring back the
audience to cinema?
Jackson :
Bringing the filmgoers back to the cinemas is a problem that
the film industry in any part of the world is facing, If we do a
good piece of work there is always an audience ready to watch.
In addition to this, the division between artistic films and
commercial films also has affected the audience. There is a
belief that artistic films are not commercially successful and
commercial films are not artistically rich. This is a misguided
idea. In the whole world it is only in Sri Lanka that cinema is
divided as artistic and commercial. In addition there was a
separate circuit also created for different films.
Take for example Suriya Arana. It was box office hit which
people watched several times. It was a beautiful film. I believe
that the people are more educated and have an artistic taste to
decide what is good and what is bad.
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