Features | Online edition of Daily News

Lishan Perera
Picture by Ruwan de Silva

Lishan Perera became one of the youngest authors from Sri Lanka at 12 when he published ‘The Killer’, a thriller in 2006. 14-year old Lishan has now authored two other novels: ‘Time to Die’ and ‘Pure Evil’. Lishan goes to Colombo International School and computer classes keep him busy in the evenings.

Yet he manages to bring out his fourth publication. The teenage author talks to Sachitra Mahendra on ruffling feathers in literature.

“Praying that everything would go well, Sandra climbed out of the car and trudged slowly up the driveway. The snow was about two feet thick and it looked as if no one had bothered to shovel it in days.

It seemed as if though Chip’s parents weren’t home. Otherwise, why should only one light be on?

Thank God, it would be easier to confront Chip alone and get everything over with. For the second time that day, she rang the Mathews’ front bell. No one came to the door.

So starts the prologue of my latest publication ‘Pure Evil’. I completed the book by February and it was out in August 2007. Last year was a year full of events. My short story ‘In Hands of Fate’ was published in Daily News Anthology ‘Nothing Grows Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories’ in December. Three of my books were published in Singapore in early December.

I remember it was raining hard when we touched Changi Airport in Singapore with dull and grey weather but I was happy. I could see the Airbus A380. In fact I could see many things inside. Aeronautical engineering has captivated me. Writing will keep me company as a hobby, but aeronautical engineering will be my profession.

Writing a novel is something that suddenly flashed across my mind. Normally, I need a title first to work on a plot. I read a wide variety of novels ranging from works like ‘The English Patient’ to ‘Angels and Demons’. Sydney Sheldon, Anthony Horowitz, Jeffrey Archer, James Patterson, Dan Brown and J. K. Rowling are some of my favourite authors.

Their characterisation helped me a lot. My protagonist in ‘Time to Die’ is Matt Masters, who is a NYPD Detective. Many crime fictions have a detective character. I wanted to make a character of my own but with special traits.

To compare ‘The Killer’, my first novel with the latest, I should be frank and happy that ‘Pure Evil’ has lesser inconsistencies and the writing style is much better. My fourth publication, a short story collection, is titled ‘No Second Chance’. The stories are sometimes funny and sometimes serious reading like Tsunami devastation in 2004 and the Civil War. I hope this will reach many age groups. Some ask why I do not write in Sinhala.

My Sinhala is not so good in the first place, and I learn English medium at school but I love reading Sri Lankan English fiction as they portray the local culture. I don’t compare Sri Lankan fiction with Western ones, though I find Western fiction more page-moving.

I have allocated at least an hour for planning the upcoming novels in my daily routine. The basis of a good thriller is a good, fast-moving, twisted plot making the reader guess. This is why I spend hours rewriting rough sketch after rough sketch. When you have a solid basis, the rest is easy. The thriller is not a classical work. The reader doesn’t want to know how the characters look like, as in the classics.

Many Western novels are packed with facts. Actual facts give the fiction a sense of authenticity, but not in every instance.

You talk about a gun, but there is no point in going into details like its manufacturer etc. It only bores the reader.

Apart from writing and my blog, www.lishanperera.blogspot.com, there is yet another hobby that keeps me occupied.

TV Southasia makes debut on Channel One MTV

A fascinating new media venture launched recently in the SAARC region has taken wings and is causing ripples among viewers and media networks alike.

On a conceptual level, the idea seems near impossible - to bring five South Asian nations together and operate one channel, made up of programming content from the five nations, and to transmit this channel across the region, reaching millions of homes.

But impossible dreams exist just so that someone might have the audacity to achieve them.

Today, TV Southasia is not just a reality but is also beginning to show signs of revolutionising how media operates in the region.

“We started with a dream and today, it has come true...we are proud to be Southasian and TV Southasia proves that together, we are stronger,” said Rathikant Basu, Managing Director, Tara TV, India, Founder- TV Southasia. Broadcast in Sri Lanka between 7 and 8 pm on Channel One MTV, TV Southasia is a partnership among Tara TV India, Rtv Bangladesh, Aaj TV in Pakistan, Image Channel in Nepal and MTV Channels here in Sri Lanka.

From an initial meeting held in New Delhi in early 2007, the channel was launched at a gala ceremony early this year in Mumbai with Sri Lanka’s celebrity singers Bathiya and Santhush performing at the event.

Currently the channel telecasts lifestyle, sports, entertainment, documentaries, music and profile talk show programming on its 24-hour offering.

The distinct flavor of the channel comes from the fact that it consists of programming from its partner channels; A landmark achievement in any circumstance, particularly at a time any sort of multilateral partnership seems impossible.

“Sri Lankan viewers can now watch fantastic programming from our neighbouring nations and experience a different culture every evening!”, noted Miuru Jayaweera, who is part of the TV Southasia team at MTV Channels Pvt. Ltd. Channel One MTV, recently recognised as the highest rated English language TV Channel in Sri Lanka has chosen its prime time slot of 7 to 8 in the evening, confident that viewers would enjoy the content TV Southasia offers.

However for now, the channel is focusing on getting its product mix right and setting up the right systems and technology backbone that would facilitate that growth.

After Tsunami:

The Survivors’ “Views”

An exhibition of photographs titled “After Tsunami: The Survivors “Views” will be held at the Alliance Francaise (AF), Colombo, from September 18 to 30.

The exhibition will be presented by Jérémy villy, Philippe Benassi and María Heredero Jiménez in collaboration with “Vues d’un Monde” (Views of a World), a young cultural association that has already implemented numerous projects on global photographic meetings since 2004.

Their joint vision is based on the knowledge of the “other” acquired through subjective photographic representations. One of the Association’s goals has been to expand into new projects focusing on interactions between development cooperation and artistic expression.

For this purpose AF submitted this project to the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation and Development (AECID) in 2006, which has become their first partner in this kind of project in Banda Aceh (Indonesia), and now they have the opportunity to implement it in Sri Lanka.

AECID expressed interest in the VDM project and suggested getting in touch with some of the organisations who are working with local communities in Sri Lanka.

The main advantage in working directly with local organisations is getting to know the conditions on the field and to establish links between the local communities and VDM. Field coordinators of VDM will spend six weeks in theses communities and will provide a digital camera to the participants and workshops to facilitate technical support. Their objective being to photograph their everyday lives some years after the Tsunami.

After a short technical training on photography, the participants are given the creative liberty to select the pictures they want to show and to share with each other. After six weeks on the field, they will submit their precious work to us. Each participant will display their selected photographs at the exhibition.

The main objective of this Project is to gain knowledge of the environment of a specific place by focusing on the survivors of the catastrophe and the organisations that are helping them to rebuild their lives.

The basic idea of gaining knowledge of others through the use of photography has remained the same as in the association’s previous projects, but in this instance it has been applied to the field of International Cooperation in Sri Lanka.

Season one concluded amidst glamour and fame. Within weeks the Sirasa team launched the second season of ‘Sirasa Dancing Stars’ but many questions remain. Was the programme launched hastily due to competition?

Has the audience’s enthusiasm decreased? Why are there more new entrants than those who are already riding the crest of fame? Did veterans shun the opportunity to showcase their dancing talents or was it their fear of them being eliminated over young talent? Head of Sirasa TV , Susara Dinal sets the records straight.

We chose a lot of young debutants for SDS season two. Season one had a combination of veterans as well as upcoming youths but once we looked back we realised that it was a huge boost for the entrants.

The competition functions in the same procedure. There are also some slight changes in the outlook of the programme. Twenty-two contestants are included in the competition.

Q: Since you have concentrated only on new faces to the scene hasn’t it affected the number of viewers attracted to the programme? Isn’t there a decrease in the ‘star’ quality as well?

It’s difficult to put it in that manner. We got more response towards the end of season one. This is only the beginning of season two and there is still another group yet to reveal themselves and display their talents. Normally this type of programmes grab interest as the contest approaches a climax.

Though we had a number of well known artistes in the previous series, young talent showed through. This time we have included people who have excelled in diverse fields: singers, actors, models and sportsmen. We do not see a decrease in star attraction.

Q: SDS season two was launched soon after its first season. Isn’t it too soon?

No, we do not share the same view. We have contemplated and discussed on this issue and we took a wise move. SDS is a project planned to last five to six months. Our ‘Sirasa Superstar’ programme drags on for nearly one year due to the large number of contestants.

We have received more than 100,000 of applications. Such programmes need a lot of time for pre-preparations and to finalise the initial arrangements.

Since we are already familiar with how the programme flows we were able to switch to the second season easily with a few minor changes. We did not face any problems by launching each season back to back.

Q: You have retained both Ravindra Randeniya and Rosy Senanayake in the jury instead of engaging new members.

It is essential to match each profile of a person with the other. Randeniya is one of our most experienced actors and he shared the golden age of Sinhala cinema with Gamini Fonseka and Vijaya Kumaratunga.

Malani Fonseka will not be in the country for two months but we hope to bring her in as a member of the jury in the future. We brought in Sabitha Perera along with Rosy Senanayake who embodies an entirely different personality from the artistes. We have a well balanced jury but we will also be inviting more artistes to take part in the judging panel as guest judges.

They will receive cash prizes. Apart from that they will receive either a luxury house or a vehicle. We have not yet decided on that aspect but it will most likely be a luxury house this time.

Q: There was an issue in season one with Saliya Satyajith hurting himself during rehearsals. He accused you of not delaying the programme till he was able to regain himself. Will a contestant face a similar situation if he or she faces injury?

If a contestant faces a situation in which he or she is unable to compete for the coming week it is the accepted norm that the person eliminated in the previous week gets the chance to get back into the contest.

We went to Saliya’s home once we heard that he was injured but he had gone to a doctor who had adviced him not to dance. We asked for a voice cut from him but her refused give one.

Dr. Geethanjan Mendis examined Saliya and told him that he will be able to compete if he took heavy pain-killers. Many fast bowlers take pain-killers and play for their teams when they have got similar or worse cramps.

We gave Saliya time to decide on what he would like to do and informed him to let us know whether he would be able to compete next day morning. He refused to compete and we couldn’t hold the programme for one person.

We did not expose the full details of what happened because it will have harmful consequences on Saliya’s career. Our aim was to create a positive image for everyone who took part in the programme.


Chula and Sahan	Nelum and Venura	Nadeesha and Nayana	Ayesha and Lucky

We held the Muhurath ceremony for the film recently. Dushyanth Weeraman, Nilanthi Dias, Ravindra Randeniya, Roshan Ranawana and Shiroshi Romeshika will star in the movie along with Dushyanth’s partner Hashini and Nilanthi’s partner Nalin and many others.

We are finalising the script these days and shooting will commence on September 20. Dancing will be the centre of focus in this movie and this will be a new experience for cinema goers.

We are maintaining the number one slot in the television scene for three years because of the strategies we have employed. Everything is set for the film but it is a huge project and shooting will take place in several countries abroad.

We realised that it is more appropriate to make a movie based on the Dancing Stars programme and cater it to the market. The ‘Sirasa Superstar’ movie is still on the cards but we have put it in the back burner for the moment.

We are already sorting out the applications and entering the data. We hope to start recordings at the end of next month.

Yes, we started the recording on a new Reality TV based on education and knowledge last week. It is not easy launching such programmes as everything has to be organised and a lot of people involved. We hope to air our new Reality TV programme from the beginning of next month.

Pictures by Saman Sri Wedage

‘AYA 2008’ A platform for young talent



Ashinshani	Thamali	Sudam	Militha

AYA (Alliance Young Artists), inaugurated in 2003, heralded the birth of a new concept in the field of art consequent to a proposal made by Dr. Jacques Soulié the present Director of Alliance française de Kandy.

This annual cultural event is primarily designed to develop and enrich the artistic talents inherent among the students in a multi-cultural setting. Unzipping the minds and opening their eyes to the design, colour, forms, rhythm ,texture and pattern - in the world around them in both natural and man made wonders - are the anticipated outcome of this discipline.

‘AYA 2008’ will showcase works by Ashinshani Jayawanthi Nambuge (Good Shepherd Convent, Kandy), . P.G.Militha Menura Bandara (St. Anthony’s College, Kandy), Sudam Jerom Samarasinghe (St .Anthony’s College, Kandy) and R.M. Thamali Dhananjani Kumari (Pushpadana Girl’s College, Kandy).

The opening of ‘AYA 2008’ will be held at the auditorium, Alliance française de Kandy on September 19 at 6.30 pm. Rev. Father Titus Rodrigo, Principal St. Anthony’s College, Kandy will be the Chief Guest. The exhibition will continue till September 26.

Marco Polo to be launched

Sarathchandra Jayakody’s latest book Marco Polo will be launched at Dayawansa Jayakody Book Exhibition Hall, Colombo 10 on September 16 at 10 a.m.

Marco Polo is the authentic Sinhala translation of ‘The Travel of Marco Polo’, which is a true story. Born in 1254 Marco Polo travelled in many Eastern countries such as China, India and Mongolia. His impressions about these countries are very interesting.

Meeting the extraordinary

Athivishesha is a series of action based documentaries on Sri Lankan daredevils who will perform unimaginable feats. In all cases, they demonstrate strength and resolve that we, as viewers can only begin to imagine.

It puts life into perspective and makes us realise that our own day-to-day moans and complaints are utterly trivial by comparison to what extremes these extraordinary people undergo. This extraordinary programme on extraordinary people, will be telecast on Derana every Monday at 9.30 pm.