The thespian’s:

Magic Hour

Channa Bandara Wijekoon

He spearheaded bringing in many innovations to the Sinhala film industry. His very first motion film Welikathara was a landmark in Sinhala cinema. He created history by setting-up the National Film Corporation (NFC) and becoming its first CEO and General Manager at the tender age of 29. The golden era of Sinhala cinema in the decade of the 1970s was marked while he held office at NFC. He is none other than Dr D B Nihalsinghe, the Encounter of the Week.

D B Nihalsinghe with the very first Cinemascope camera in South Asia Pictures by Ranjith Asanka

Q: Your father was the

veteran journalist D B Dhanapala. What made you to choose cinema instead of becoming a journalist?

A: Actually I started off as a film journalist because of my father. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Lankadeepa at the time when I was schooling. One of the journalists sent to Australia on a scholarship on his return had told my father, Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) was on the hunt for a news cameraman in Sri Lanka.

I was mooching around as a young boy taking all kinds of shots with the 16mm cine-camera given by my father. I got the opportunity to tie-up with ABC and to become a newsreel cameraman for ABC. I was schooling at the time. It was a television-free environment in which I was groomed.

Q: How did you move

forward?

A: After graduating from Peradeniya University, I got a fresh offer from ‘Hearst Metrotone News’, which was a ten-minute newsreel. It went around the world every week.

They sent me to Vietnam. That was the very primitive stage of television. You had to shoot with film. I went to Vietnam two weeks after I got married. The experience I had in the battlefields of Vietnam is history. That gave me familiarity to handholding heavy cameras. The experience there hardened me.

This is what I brought into Sathsamudura cinematography on my return to Ceylon in 1965.

The fluidity of the camera which was commented upon at that time came because of this handheld thing and that came from film journalism.

I was able to handhold the camera and shoot at a time when Indian type Heavy studio cameras were being used to shoot films.

I went down that line to make documentary films and got the award for the best documentary film at commonwealth film festival at Cardiff in 1965. John Grieson who is called the ‘father of documentary film’ gave me the award. He was a great influence in my life. I was 24 at the time.

Grieson is very famous in Sri Lanka because he was the producer of “Song of Ceylon” which is a milestone in documentary filmmaking.

Then I applied for the post of director at the government film unit and the appointment came in 1970. The guys there were double my age. Everybody laughed at me. To get their respect and run the place was a huge challenge.

Then the Pope’s visit took place. R S Perera, my Minister, called me and said ‘I want a 40-minute film of Pope’s visit to be shown as soon as possible’. He was talking about a month or so. Pope arrived at 11 pm and the following day 11 am this 40-minute film was shown at Regal theatre to the Minister and the Cardinal.

Maldeniye Simiyon

Welikathara

Keli Madala

The way I planned the whole system of this production enticed the guys at film unit and they got to know that I knew my onions. After that they gave me their fullest support.

Q: Welikathara was another milestone in Sinhala film history. Your comment.

A: After applying for the post of Director at the Film Unit, I went on to direct Welikathara. The camera used was the very first Cinemascope one in South Asia. Although shooting of ‘Paakeeza’ which was India’s first Cinemascope film got off the grounds earlier, Welikathara came out first in 1970.

Thus Welikathara made history as the very first Cinemascope film in South Asia. I handheld the heavy camera and shot the film. I was very young, enthusiastic and strong.

Welikathara is a milestone for many reasons. Gamini Fonseka played an anti-hero character in Welikathara when he was the top notch actor playing hero at the time. Joe Abeywickrama was a comedian making his mark as a character actor. Suwineetha was a seasoned actress. They turned up in the set with all the dialogues memorized.

Welikathara was the first screenplay of Tissa Abeysekera. He was an additional dialogue writer earlier. Dr Peiris offered him to write the screenplay of Nidhanaya afterwards.

It was my debut film too. Though it was literally called my first film, by this time I had given a helping hand in directing Binaramalee, Sathsamudura and Paaraawalalu. I stuck to the script while directing Welikathara. Only Joe’s (Gorin Mudalali) retreating scene was shot with some emphasis as a sole decision made by me.

Q: Setting up of the National Film Corporation (NFC) - please recall that period.

A: Film Corporation was formed in 1971. The key problem at the time was domination of foreign films. The ratio of screen time was 65 percent for Tamil, 15 percent for Hindi and five percent for English. The corporation was formed to put this balance right. The rest is history.

I was the CEO cum General Manager by the Act. L Piyasena was the non-executive Chairman. We had heavy resistance from Ceylon theatres, Cinemas and Entertainments, Jabir A Cadre and his clan.

In 1971 total yearly attendance was 30 million. The new initiatives were introduced for film production, distribution, exhibition and import. Import and distribution were in the hands of the film corporation. Other two areas were left to the private sector under the procedures laid down.

When this mix was balanced well, the attendance rose from 30 million to 74.4 million by 1979. That is the highest attendance for cinema on record for this country.

Then the government was changed and Anton Wickramasinghe became the chairman in 1979. He destroyed beyond resurrection all the good work done to set up a national cinema.

When he left office in 1989, the attendance had dropped to 29 million. It had dropped to five million by 2010. The number of cinemas had dropped from 365 to 138.

Although other attributes like terrorist problem too contributed further to downfall, when Anton took office in 1979, there was no terrorist menace in the country.

Q: You initiated photography of National Identity cards.

A: After Welikathara I went into film unit. While working there I was seconded as the first CEO and General Manager of NFC.

Those days it was the Rolleiflex; the huge 120 giant of a camera that was being used.

Since NIC was coming I told them, “You can’t be carrying around huge cameras and photos for the NIC job and we will do it from the film unit with 35mm film”. Government of GBR gifted us film roles and 5000 (35mm) Praktica cameras which we distributed to studios in the country as two cameras per studio, along with thousands of cassettes to load and 400 feet rolls of 35mm film. Film unit handled the photography part of the NIC. Setting up the film corporation from scratch, revamping film unit and building the new studio at Kirullapone, Initiating photography for NIC; was done by me simultaneously. I was 29.

Q: Your stint in television and innovations brought to the sphere.

A: When I left the government service, I went to television. I was a full member of ‘Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers of America’. I was familiar with TV by the time it came and was confident to take the plunge.

We formed ‘Tele-Cine’ which was the first fully professional colour television production company in South Asia.

We did ‘Dimuthu Muthu’ the very first full colour tele-series in South Asia. Devika Mihirani was the first television star in Sri Lanka. We did ‘Sudu Saha Kalu’ casting Gamini Fonseka and various TV documentaries. TV commercials too were pioneered in South Asia by Tele-Cine. We trained many personnel.

In 1995 I left for Hong Kong as the production consultant for ‘Shaw Brothers’ and they seconded me to Malaysia as the General Manager and CEO of ASTRO. It is the largest fully digital film and television production company in the world.

I stayed there for ten years and became the general manager and CEO of three companies and was in-charge of film and television production.

I came back in 2005 and was appointed as Senior Fellow of Kelaniya University. Then I designed Sri Lanka’s first film and television degree.

Q: Your future endeavours?

A: Now my total obsession is my granddaughter Anagi Rathie.

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