Spoken word recordings first became possible with the
invention of the Phonograph by Thomas Edison
in 1877. ‘Phonographic books’ were one of the great attempts he made to speak
to blind people without effort on their part. In 1931, the American Foundation for the Blind
(AFB) and Library of Congress Books for the Adult Blind Project established the
‘Talking Books Program’, which was intended to
provide reading material for veterans injured during WWI and other visually
impaired adults. In 2010, our neighbor India also started launching books
in the audio format. In 2013, Bhathiya Madanayake, a Sri Lankan artiste made
the attempt to introduced this style to Sri Lankan literature in 2013. “It was
mainly aimed for the blind community of the country. They don’t have many books
to read even in Braille,” Bhathiya Madanayake said speaking to The Nation.
Madanayake is not only a writer. It may be the Wirindu
song sung by Jackson Anthony and Anula Bulathsinhala which makes Daya Weiman’s Neinage Suduwa nothing new to us. The
main character of the play, John Kothalawala described as a hero
was enacted by Bhathiya Madanayake. He continues to play this role since the
drama was first staged in 1984. Contributing to a popular stage drama, for
nearly 30 years, it seems that this artiste hasn’t received appropriate appreciation.
“I came to the stage in 1978. I contributed to every sphere from acting to
making the sets, when I first started. That’s where I practiced the necessary skills
which are helping me until now,” he said.
He wrote and directed his debut stage play Swayanwaraya
in 1983. Apart from being a stage dramatist Madanayake has also worked in the
cinema and television media simultaneously. “I worked under Ms Shrimathi
Liyanage at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation - children’s programs. In 1981,
I joined the Times of Ceylon, as the Kirulapone correspondent for Lankadeepa
and Sri Lankadeepa. Later I joined several other newspapers including Heladiva,
Kalarasa and Sathdina and I am still working as a journalist. My
latest interest is in making song visuals,” he described the path he traveled.
Without limiting his work to one field Madanayake is also an
assistant teledrama director and a writer. “My first short story collection was
published in 2000 with Sandun Wijesiri, a Godage publication, and debut novel in 2006. Since then I have written
and published at least one novel a year. While I was working as a journalist in
Heladiva newspaper, I got the opportunity to report on the war from Pudumathalan.
We were able to report from one and half kilometers away from the war front.
Those experiences later became a book, Unu Le Wagirena Yuda Bima which
include more than 100 photographs,” he said. According to Madanayake, he
received the most number of responses for his book Para,
which is about how human mind changes in following the Buddhist philosophy. National
Library and Documentation Services Board sponsored the publication and accepted
it as a library book .
Speaking about difficulties faced in finding publishers, Madanayake
said, book publishers do not like to accept collections of short stories. “Book
publishers have this attitude that they cannot sell or market short stories. Even
Godage, who published my debut short story collection refused to accept short
stories and requested not to bring short stories. That is how I got it to the
idea of doing the short story CD,” he said.
His audio short story collection Kathawak Ahamu was
launched during the first quarter of 2013. Following in the audio book style
Madanayake launched the CD at the ‘Color of Blind Music Festival’ in 2013 March.
“My intention was to provide these short stories for the blind community. Since
I was a dubbing artists and I had my own short stories this was not hard work,”
he reiterated. “As I got to know from the visually handicapped, most of the
Braille books available in Sri
Lanka are educational. There are very few
short stories or novels. Even if there are books, they are limited to places
like Ratmalana Blind School.
Since the stories in the CD are narrated but not acted out, the listener is
able to get a feeling similar to reading a book. The listener has his freedom
of imagination,” he added.
This is the first Sinhala short story collection in audio
format aimed for the blind. If well developed, this method could be expanded in
to something very valuable for the blind community. “Imagine someday when a
visually handicapped person wants to read Gamperaliya, Madol Doova
or Maxim Gorky’s Amma. If they have these books in the audio format,
that will be very easy for them. Also this will be a very good solution for the
people who complain that they have no time to read since they can even play
this on the go,” Madanayake pointed out.
Apart from refusing Short Story collections, Madanayake also
faulted book publishers for using the female form as book covers. This is
mostly true for novels which target the average reader. According to him, some
book publishers think a girl’s picture is essential to market the book. When a
writer begins his voyage finding a publisher for his or her novel, the writer
becomes helpless in view of the financial aspect. “I also felt victim to this.
Publishers are not doing a social service. It’s their way for earning their
living. I know some publishers don’t even bother reading the book before
accepting. A marketable cover is all what they want. You cannot and you should
not judge any novel by its cover,” he alleged.
“My book Para, which
I got the best response for, does not have a girl on the cover. But over 3000
copies were sold. One Buddhist monk even asked me to make a movie out of the
story promising to look for financial aid. After all this the publisher told me
that if we can redo the cover using a girl, he could sell another 1000 copies.
That is the situation in most places, I don’t know why,” he expressed his regret.
Madanayake has years of experience as a dubbing artiste and
a voice actor. His latest involvements the famous Korean dramas; Sujatha
Diyani, Abeetha Diyani to Isiwara Wedaduru telecasted in Jathika
Rupavahini and the latest radio drama of Sinha fm. “Lip dubbing is
the hardest of all. You’ve to be familiar with the lip movement of the original
actor. The dubbing artist has to be mindful about the scene, the voice of the
original actor and know how to adapt his voice according to the situation. A
successful dubbing artiste would know how to do this,” he explained.
He also explained the difficulties a dubbing artiste or a
voice actor in the field has to face. “There are some groups which treat the
artistes as troublemakers. Some do not make payment soon after the recording. They
make promises to pay later or to send a check by post. This does not happen on
time and the artistes have to call the producers, and more promises. There are
times we receive the payments a long time after the drama was broadcast. They
fill their air time, they get the advertisements but the artiste gets nothing.
This delay in payment is frustrating as many of these artistes are dependent on
the payments,” Madanayake bluntly aired. “Worse part of inquiring about the
payments is that the artiste gets labeled as a person who fusses about money
and finally the other people in the field stop inviting the artiste for new
recordings. Vice versa there are people and places we ignore when asked to come
for a recording,” he lamented. He also mentioned that this is not the situation
at Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation. “SLRC is well organized regarding dubbing
artistes and voicing. We are thankful to Athula Ransirilal for that,” he added.
Madanayake also contributes to the television as a script
writer. The weekend television comedy Yes Madam is his latest. “Writing
comedy scripts is not an easy task. If we try to create artificial incidents as
comedies we become the joke. There are enough hilarious incidents in day to day
incidents. It’s mostly the timing which brings out humor. If properly brought
out, the scriptwriter doesn’t have to repeat the funny dialogue for the
audience,” he clarified. Madanayake’s newest contribution as a script writer is
for the remake of teledrama Hiruta Muwawen. Popularly known as the
Indiappa Kathawa during the 80s, Hiruta Muwawen is the original
script of late director Herbert Ranjith Peiris.
In Bhathiya Madanayake’s point of view, artistes in Sri Lanka are
not well appreciated and not given the rightful place in society. “If one
artiste is well recognized, that is mostly the artiste’s hard work. He or she
may have to work towards receiving their rightful place. It does not come
automatically. Speaking of me, when I launched my audio short story collection,
I myself had to promote it with no other help. Since I received the responses
of the blind community, I know I did the right thing,” he said. “If an artiste
needs to get attention he or she should know how to market themselves properly.
If not you’ll get no where. I don’t do that as a principle. I just do my job,”
Madanayake added.
He also pointed out the responsibility the Department of
Cultural Affair on the well being of artistes. “Cultural Affairs Department
considers only a part of the people in the field as artistes. There are many
who have contributed, but not recognized. One example is the Identity card
which was issued to the artistes of Sri Lanka by the department. After
issuing it for a few selected people they stopped issuing it. It’s been more
than a year now. I’m not sure about the criteria they use to select artistes.
They had a margin saying the artistes should have been in the field for more
than 13 years to receive the ID. But there are many who had worked in the field
for more than 13 years but didn’t receive the ID. Some who has worked for only
five or six years also received this,” he said. “I have worked in the field for
over 35 years now. I also did not receive it,” he claimed.
No comments:
Post a Comment