Screening a film is the biggest challenge for a producer:Poojitha

Poojitha Gunathilaka who wrote the story, script, dialogues and co-directed the newest movie ‘Sheleena’ while producing it, says that screening a film in this country is the biggest challenge compared to making a movie.
‘Sheleena’ is Poojitha’s first movie co-directed by Chandana Edirisinghe.

“I have worked in films and tele dramas for several years in the capacities of assistant director and production manager. I also studied scriptwriting under veteran the late Tissa Abeysekara. This original movie plot of mine is about 15 years old. I had to update it to suit this period of time when I decided to make this movie. This is a real suspense thriller and I am glad about the feedback I am getting,” said Poojitha who also released the Tamil dubbed version of it in theatres.

I have worked in films and tele dramas for several years in the capacities of assistant director and production manager

“I did not get sufficient Tamil film screening theatres, but yet the film has been accepted by the Tamil audiences as well. I feel that a film takes about three weeks to pick up from the date of release. So theatres and circuits must ensure that we get a reasonable time frame to screen our movies in order to even recover our costs. It is not fair when new movies are lined up within weeks after a release. 

This crisis must be addressed immediately. I am sad no film personality who entered politics involved themselves to resolve issues relating to our film industry. Identifying the real problem is the key to finding a solution. Personally I regret that a person like Arjuna Kamalanath did not make it to mainstream politics. He is a film hall owner, producer, director and actor. 

A person with such wide experience would be able to understand the ground realities in our film industry. There should be unity among all stakeholders in this industry if we are to resolve these issues. I used Dineth de Silva, Amanda Silva and Anuj Ranasinghe in my movie because I was confident of their potential though relatively new to the industry. Newcomers must also be given a platform to showcase their talents,” he said.