ITN ready to pay for good productions

Sandasen Marasinghe

COLOMBO: Independent Television Network (ITN) Chairman Anura Siriwardana said there was a dearth of quality teledramas being produced these days.

"ITN needs good productions to telecast them over our channel", he told at a public lecture and discussion on 'Future of Sri Lankan Teledrama' at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute on Thursday.

Siriwardana said if the directors could produce quality teledramas ITN was ready to telecast them within two months.

"Teledrama artistes need not worry whether they have sponsors or not. If their productions are good, ITN will take them paying them their due," he said.

The Chairman said ITN is in need of good teledramas. "Our panel of judges selecting teledramas watched four teledramas the previous day but none were upto the required standard," Siriwardana said.

He said artistes should not seek political support to get their teledramas telecast on ITN.

"The selecting procedure of the teledramas was devoid of political influences. There was a panel of judges who had a thorough knowledge in the field," he said.

The ITN Chairman pointing out about the non-availability of teledrama themes, said most artistes do not produce quality teledramas these days and continuously deal with the same themes.

The lecture and the discussion were organised under the guidance of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute Chairman Koggala Wellala Bandula.

It was organised to identify the weaknesses and obstacles in the field of teledrama and create a discussion among the artistes to create a better teledrama culture.

Prof. Sunanda Mahendra, Director of Sri Lanka Television Training Institute Tissa Abeysekara, Film Director Somaratna Dissanayake and actress Geetha Kumarasinghe also lectured.