Giving conscience a sensitive touch

A chat with tele-drama director Roshan Ahangama

  

There is a divorce lawyer who has many years of practice in helping married people separate from each other and sometimes helps them reunite. He always succeeds in getting what his clients desire. This is what he has been doing half of his life. This is what he knows best. But when it comes to his divorce, he fails. Being one of the best divorce lawyers in the country, why couldn’t he achieve what he wanted?

There is a girl who resides by the banks of the Kelani River who cleans rich people’s cloths. She cleans fancy cloths every day, dreaming of her wedding day. Yet it doesn’t seem like her dreams will come true any time soon. What halts her marriage? Is it her profession? Is it because she isn’t rich?

These are stories from our society. Yet, do all these stories get registered in the mind of an observer? “What made the lawyer fail? Why can’t this girl get married? Do we understand the real issue behind all this? Does everyone have a conscience?,” Roshan Ahangama talking about his latest tele-direction Harda Shakshiya queried. “Sometimes it’s like some people do not have a conscience or they have simply forgotten their conscience. Concept of this single episode tele-drama was put together to question this, to see whether this buried conscience can be brought back to the surface,” Roshan said.

Roshan who plays several roles in the media field is from Ahangama, Galle. As a child he attended several schools and acquired his degree in sociology from Peradeniya University. He reminisced how he has been interested in cinema and arts since he his schooldays. University education on social issues combined with the passion towards cinema encouraged him to study further about film creations. He said that he looked out for opportunities to learn about cinema whenever he could.  

Roshan is not a stranger to the Rivira family. He has been playing a prominent role in the Rivira Sports Desk for a long period. He said that his motive behind becoming a sports journalist was also linked to his passion towards tele creations. He is determined to make a movie based on his experiences in the sports field and he said that he is inspired to seek more and more knowledge in the field every day, getting closer to achieving his goal.

In 2010, his short film ‘Rescue’ was appreciated as the best short film at the Alternative Short Film Festival. Rescue was appreciated at several international film festivals.  His 2012 single episode teledrama Niramisa was also highly admired. Harda Shakshiya is his first lengthy teledrama series.

Speaking further about his tele-creation in the making, he said this series was started off as a sociological experiment to seek a way to address sensitive human issues. He said that the journey in finding heart-touching stories was quite exciting that they met people from many walks of life.

This tele series speaks of 50 different stories and each story will be telecast in two episodes. “50 episodes are already completed and ready to be telecast,” Roshan said. He added, “Finding locations for shooting was also done carefully. We always tried to get to the original locations of where the stories generated.” He also mentioned that most of these stories are real. “We tried our best to secure its originality, so that we can bring out the real emotions,” he explained.

Scripts for these stories were written by Roshan along with Thushari Abeysekara, Wimal Katapearachchi, Ayeshika Rajasooriya, Upali Bandara Weeraserkara, Gamunu Wickramasuriya and Dhammika Deeptha. “The scripts will bring out stories from our society, what we overlooked,” he said. “These stories could have easily been showcased as documentary programs. But, I believe our effort is more effective that it secures the sensitivity of the stories,” he opined.

He further said that this tele-creation will be a novel experience for the teledrama audience in Sri Lanka. “It will be an eye-opening experience after years and years of mega and foreign teledramas,” he iterated. 

The tele series is produced by the Harda Shakshiya Art Circle, Dharaka Abeywardana and Indrawansha Gunawardena. Music direction for the tele series is by Gayathri Kemadasa, daughter of maestro Premasiri Kemadasa. According to Roshan, music direction for the tele series is also an experiment in the teledrama field that the theme song of the teledrama will be presented in the form of opera. “Each episode will commence with a short opera of two and a half minutes. Gayathri put immense effort to make it an extraordinary experience,” he said.

He fondly remembered his colleague, late The Nation photojournalist Rukshan Abeywansha who was a member of the Harda Shakshiya group at the beginning.  “We wanted to use his skills in still photography to reach new dimensions in shooting the stories. Unfortunately, he could only contribute to four stories,” he expressed his grief.  Later, Chathuranga Wickramasinghe joined the group in managing camera and lights.    

“Harda Shakshiya will be a new experience going beyond the usual teledrama trends. Maybe that’s the reason for the delay in accepting the series to telecast. Maybe the themes discussed are too strong for the media institutions,” in conclusion he said that he is yet to receive a telecast schedule for the drama series.