Religious leaders and artistes protest against ‘Mega Teledramas’

(September 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Following the protest organized by Tele Makers Guild which comprises teledrama producers, directors, actors and technicians over the telecast of multi-episode-Mega teledramas, a number of Buddhist prelates, priests and veteran artistes have highlighted the harmful effect it could have on the industry. Here follows a few selected comments made by some of them.

Ven. Prof. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thera said that the 'Mega teledrama has become an addiction to television instead of giving freedom of selection to the audience. "Over the recent past, there is a significant failure in the quality of teledramas and most of these dramas gives false values to its viewers," Ven. Wimalarathana Thera said.

This has become worse with the introduction of 'mega-teledramas' or prolonged, multi episode teledramas. When the dramas are telecast weekly, the audience was able to make a selection as to what they should watch.

And this gave them an independent choice but when the same teledrama is telecast daily they are forced to watch whatever the quality or whatever the episode. "This trend has made the TV audience including children addicted to teledramas," the Thra said.

Former head of the Catholic Communication Unit and OCIC, Rev. Fr. Ernest Poruthota says that the 'mega' is a threat to the creativity of the art of teledrama. "This could be financially advantgeous for those involved in it but creativity-wise it leads to the downfall of the art of teledrama," Fr. Poruthota complained.

"On behalf of the OCIC which I represented I am against this trend. And I think it is against the very reason of introducing this particular medium of art to our country," Fr. Poruthota said.

There should be variety in teledrama and with this variety a large number of creative artistes were born not only to teledrama but other medium like cinema, he added.

Veteran filmmaker and first Chairman of National Film Corporation, Dr. D. B. Nihalsinghe says that the trend has overlooked the needs of the public by wasting valuable airtime which should be used for programmes that are essential for the public.

"This is violation of public responsibility by the TV channel. And this was a situation in cinema in this country before 1972 prior to starting NFC. Most of the films screened were not in the interest of the majority," he said.

The tragedy of the teledrama industry is that this is done by the state-owned media for its financial benefits. The state institutions should focus on the benefit of the public not money and this is against the aspirations of the public.

Award-winning filmmaker and writer Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne says that mega teledrama is the worst evil faced by the teledrama industry in our country. "There is no artistic quality in this form of dramas and this is a massive blow to talented and creative teledrama directors and other artistes," Prof. Ariyaratne said.

If this trend is continued we will not have any creative artistes but even our teledrama audience will wane, he warned.

Protesting against the trend of mega dramas Prof. Ms. Kusuma Karunaratne said the values that most of this type of teledrama promotes are dangerous to country's culture and the future. "The values that are highlighted in these dramas are misleading and most of the incidents are unrealistic,".

If the art is misleading the masses there is something wrong. It is high time that this issue is taken up as a prime matter to find a solution.

A citizen whose children watch these teledramas as a rule to find out what happens in the current episode said that the producers were taking the people for a ride.

They are merely adding on an irrelevant episode to the story to continue with the picture ad nauseam.
- Sri Lanka Guardian