Sanath:

A Sarasaviya success story

BY BHARATHA Malawaraarachchi

IT WAS really a challenge and I had to make a sacrifice to to portray this character. Finally, I was rewarded, veteran actor Sanath Gunathilake said with triumph referring to last year's Sarasaviya award which he won for his role as Tissa in Sumithra Peiris's Sakman Maluwa.

Sanath recalled that he had to lay much emphasis to change his physical appearance to give an elderly look to suit the character.

"I had to sacrifice my glamour look and I did that with much satisfaction and commitment," Sanath noted.

His role won much critical and public applause. An award for this character was first made at last year's Sarasaviya festival and the wining streak continued at two other prominent film festivals in the country.

"The Sarasaviya award gave a good start and I concluded winning three awards."

Sanath extended his gratitude to Ceylon Theatres for coming forward to produce "Sakman Maluwa". "I must thank Ceylon Theatres and Anthony Page for coming forward to produce this film. I expect them to produce more films and continue their service to the local film industry."

Sanath defied all his critics by winning the best actor award for his role in Sakman Maluwa at the country's foremost cinema festivals namely Presidential, Sarasaviya and Signis.

"Winning the best actor award for the same role is really an achievement and it has given an answer to critics," says Sanath with a happy note.

"When I won the best actor award at the Sarasaviya festival for this role, there was criticism. But I did not go to respond to them. Now three different juries have given the answer by selecting me as the best actor."

Sanath does not like to boast about his achievements. "I think these awards gives me an opportunity to measure my capabilities and talents. It gives confidence that I could achieve something."

"I am not going to be over-whelmed by these awards since I have won similar awards for my roles in films such as Viragaya, Kedapathaka Chaya and Palama Yata."

However, Sanath says the commitment made by him to the role in Sakman Maluwa had been paid off by these awards and acclaim by the critics.

Sanath does not get deterred by criticism. "If somebody criticises me, I do not respond to them and yet I see the grounds on which they are making the criticism. If it is constructive criticism, I respond to them."

Referring to his role in Sakman Maluwa, Sanath says it was a very difficult character and he had to portray subtle expressions. "Not only happiness, but also jealously and suspicion had to be evident in my face. It was a challenging task. I had to sacrifice my glamour look for this role."

Sanath has now devoted his full time to film making. "Now I am into full-time acting. There was a time when I was engaged in media work and I could allocate very little time for cinema.

So I acted only in a few films. But I was confident that I could continue acting if I took it up full-time. I even got into politics in order to render a service to the film industry."

Sanath's role in "Sulanga" is also a middle aged character where he has no glamour look. "I am doing those characters with great enthusiasm and commitment. This has gained me critical applause." Sanath noted that his commitment and discipline have drawn a good response from directors.

"They are willing to work with me due to excellent cooperation extended by me. All the directors of the new generation too have expressed their willingness to work with me."

Sanath has portrayed many kinds of character in films directed by the new generation directors apart from his roles in veterans' films.

"Besides, I am always willing to work with the new generation. I am always open to help them and guide them. I am ready to extend my fullest support to them." Sanath says discipline instilled in him from his childhood enabled him to undertake this long journey.

"My mother was a school teacher and her advice made a great impact on my life. Of course, there were many challenges in my life, but I faced all those obstacles with equanimity. I always corrected my mistakes and that helped me to retain my popularity," he added.

Sanath was also confident that there is ample scope for resurrecting the celluloid industry which has shown little progress in the recent past.

"I believe it is not too late to resurrect our film industry," says Sanath with confidence stressing that it is necessary to formulate a suitable policy framework to revive the film industry. Sanath said that the film industry had collapsed in many countries around the world.

"But those countries were able to revive the industry as they had a constant dialogue on this issue. These countries also had a separate identity for their film industry."

He lamented that those facts have been forgotten in Sri Lanka. "We did not pay attention to those issues and there was no study on this industry. As a result, we were unable to resurrect the local cinema at once. But we are not too late."

The celluloid arena was a thriving industry three decades back, but the cinema culture was shattered by the 1980s.

"There were many reasons for this collapse. Although we embraced the open economic policy, there were no efforts to sustain our identity. Along with new technology, we should have safeguarded our cultural purity. But we did not make efforts to do that and Hindi films were brazenly copied."

Sanath noted the continuous copying of foreign films greatly affected the industry. "The first few films of this kind achieved success, but others failed. Those who made such films just copied the foreign films without paying attention to make creations suitable to us."

"Owing to this, we were unable to produce a generation which could contribute to making creations safeguarding the country's cultural identities," says Sanath referring to the yesteryears.

"Just look at the past. We had a commercial cinema industry which safeguarded our identity and we still love those creations."

Sanath stressed that the Government too has a role to play in upgrading the film industry. "In most countries, the film industry was resurrected with the active participation of the Governments. Before making a policy decision on this issue, proper studies should be done on the resurrected film industries."

As a former Chairman of the Rupavahini Corporation, Sanath says there should be proper coordination between television and cinema.

"During my time, I was able to prepare a certain mechanism in collaboration with the National Film Corporation then headed by Tissa Abeysekera. But we could not implement it. Now it is high time to commence this kind of mechanism."

At the moment, quite a few films are being produced in Sri Lanka and Sanath had the unique opportunity of acting in most of those.

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