New film industry alliance formed to lobby against NFC’s takeover effort

 Sri Lanka’s film theatre owners, managers and film producers during a meeting held yesterday at the Ruby Cinema Theatre premises in Maligawatte formed a new industry association to lobby against the recent move by the National Film Corporation (NFC) to take over the distribution of films from the private sector. 
Until now, five private entities—Lanka Film Distributors Ltd. (LFD), E.A.P. Films and Theatres Ltd. (EAP), Movie Producers and Importers Ltd. (MPI), Cinema Entertainment Ltd. (CEL) and Rithma Circuit (NFC) handled the film distribution for the entire industry.

Media reports quoting Higher Education and Cultural Affairs Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said the reason behind the move was to protect the local film industry, which was adversely affected by the manner in which the private sector handled film distribution. 

“It was unanimously decided to form a new industry association comprising of key people from three sectors— private film distributors, film exhibitors and film producers to address the key issues of the film industry as a joint forum,” a statement issued to the media said yesterday.

It further said a letter was also signed by all the participants to be handed over to the President and Minister Rajapakshe during the meeting to be held in the coming days highlighting the consequences to the film industry due to the decision made by the National Film Corporation without consulting any film industry experts.  
The office bearers of the new industry association Lanka United Film Producers, Distributers & Exhibitors Association (LUFPD&EA) are: Senior Advisor - Sunil Siriwardhana (LFD Film Circuit), Joint President - Sunil T. Fernando (MPI Film Circuit) and Kasun Jayawardhane (EAP Film Circuit), Convener - Arjun Kamalanath (MPI Film Circuit), Secretary - K. Wimaladasa (MPI Film Circuit), Deputy Secretary - Dr. Arosha Fernando (MPI Film Circuit) and Treasurer - G. R. Pathmaraj (CEL Film Circuit).

Furthermore, 12 key industry stakeholders were also appointed as the committee who represent the private film distributors, film exhibitors and film producers. They were: Imitiaz Cader, Devapriya Abeysinghe, H. M. Hair Haren, Ananda Peiris, Gamini Ehaliyagoda, Rohan Pinnaduwa, R. Sadesh Kumar, Aravinda Weerakoon, Sunil Premaratne, L. Sankunaraja, Sunil Dharmasiri and Keerthi Weerasinghe.