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Ira Madiyama to shine on Lankan film industry

Internationally acclaimed director Prasanna Vithanage took the first step in making his fifth film - Ira Madiyama (August Sun) last week, breaking the silence after his last and controversial film Pura Handa Kaluwara (Death On A Full Moon Day).

Prasanna's new film, which he says will be a totally new experience for local film goers, is set in the mid 1990s with the country's prolonged war as the background. The film will unfold during two scorching days in August - during which time three different groups of people face totally different experiences due to circumstances beyond their control.

The film is produced by Soma Edirisinghe for EAP films.

Prasanna says the film centres around three main narratives which evolve simultaneously, about simple and ordinary people thrown into a destructive and bloody war.

The individuals in this story are all caught in the quest of looking for what they have lost and they risk everything to achieve happiness for their lives.

The experiences those three encounter may not be directly related to the ensuing conflict but these events like the inconsistent weather - steer their lives. The film's story is by Priyath Liyanage and Prasanna while the script has been done by Prasanna himself. Shooting will commence later this month in Colombo, Prasanna said. The shooting will be done in four locations - Colombo, Anuradhapura, Thalai Mannar and Kalpitiya.

Prasanna will use people with little or no prior experience for acting in his new movie as he wants to ensure total authenticity in their performance. "The film will talk about common men, people who you would not look at twice if you see them on the road. That's why I am casting non-professionals and real life actors," he added. The film stars Peter D'Almeida, Nimmi Harasagama, Namal Jayasinghe and Mohamed Rahfiulla.

Director of photography will be M. D. Mahindapala, the assistant director is Daminda Madawala while music is by Lakshman Joseph de Saram.

The local crew will be joined by well-known Indians in the film world such as Sreekar Prasad who will digitally edit the film. Lakshminarayanan (sound designer) will handle the six track digitally mixed stereo sound.

Prasanna says he has a dream about a cinema where all people belonging to communities could come together.Introducing a novel feature to the local industry, a Website was launched for Ira Madiyama at the launch held at the Trans Asia last week. The website - www.iramadiyama.com - contains all the information about the director and the film. It is updated with the progress of the film from the very first day of shooting right through post production, the release and its [box office] performance thereafter. A special feature of this interactive website is the "Director's Diary" which features regular entries made by the director on location thus giving visitors to the website an insight into the production process.

The film's Executive Producer is Asanka Edirisinghe. It is the 22nd film to be produced by the EAP Group.

Prasanna's last film Purahanda Kaluwara in 1997, won the Grand Prix at the Amiens Film festival. It was initially banned in Sri Lanka but subsequently released following a court case.

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Malaysian pirates give Asian kung fu queen a kick in the teeth

A woman holds a pirated copy of "The Touch" movie in Kuala Lumpur, August 5. Michelle Yeoh, leading actress and producer, has pledged to destroy every pirated copy of her new film that she could find while in town to promote her 20-million-dollar action flick. AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, (AFP) Asian kung fu queen Michelle Yeoh has vowed to destroy pirated copies of her new movie "The Touch" - but pirates here gave her a swift kick in the teeth, a report said Monday.

Illegal copies of the movie, produced by and starring the former "Bond girl", hit the streets just three days after it was released August 1, The Star newspaper said. The copies are selling at 60 percent above the normal black market price of five ringgit (1.32 dollars) to "cash in on all the media hype the movie has generated," the paper said. "There is only one master copy available in Malaysia so supply is hard to come by. But it is selling well, we sold eight copies in two hours," one stall owner was quoted as saying. The 39-year-old Malaysian actress, star of the Oscar-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", pledged during a promotional tour last week to destroy every pirated copy of her new movie that she could find.

"The Touch", a 20-million-dollar action flick shot in locations from mystical Tibet to China's arid deserts of Dunhuang and the teeming streets of Beijing, is Yeoh's first foray into film production. She also stars as the last in a line of acrobats whose secret mission is to protect a great Buddhist treasure.

Piracy is a flourishing industry in Malaysia with cheap CDs, VCDs and DVDs widely available for sale on the streets and in shops despite government crackdowns. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister S. Subramaniam was quoted by Monday's New Straits Times as saying that an intellectual property committee has been set up to look into arrest of copyright pirates.

The daily said the Copyright Act 1987 currently empowers enforcement officers to raid and seize items but not to arrest suspects.

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