TV Times

TV Times

'Creata' for craving creators
By Susitha R. Fernando
About fifty metres towards Battaramulla from the Parliament junction, on to right you will find 'Creata'-the production studio, a place for multi artistic productions.

Fully equipped with modern up to date technological equipment you will find here a complete sound studio for dubbing, a video editing room, an artistically made muppets lying on one corner. They are the characters of "Ladam Pattare Nagasena" and "Kisu Kisu Pattare Warda" -the two main humorous characters that are to come to our homes through the mini screen soon. These characters depict in the creative production of Creata "Ong Lokka Api Enawa" (Here Lokka We are coming). A dozen young artists draw, develop and design cartoon characters and stories used for Creata. It has already created two documentaries, two telefilms, twenty radio commercials and number of cartoon stories.

Here under one roof many creative productions are made. Making commercials, documentaries, telefilms and muppet shows, the man behind the 'Creata' Palitha Laksman said Creata was the result of collective decisiveness and it is simply not another TV or film production unit but is a product of a vision to highlight the inherent creative ability many possess.

"I wanted to introduce something new to entertain our audience, to enjoy and also to educate. I believe through cartoon and muppets we can share important message with society,".

"Attuned to the traditional programmes, television in our country is misused very badly and the period spent in front of the TV has become an utter wastage of time. While politicians use it for their campaigns the rest of the air time is taken up by rubbish and gossip".

"Ong Lokka Api Enawa" is a political satire. The brainchild of Dr. Danuska Waidyasekara, it is ready for telecast. It is one of the programmes done by Creata.

Mr. De Silva who is also the managing director of Creata production studio speaking on the objectives of his enterprise said that Creata productions do not target any special age group and the cartoons, muppet shows and the live telecasts are produced to entertain all ages and they strictly adhere to quality.

Asked about cartoons which are mainly used in our country only as an entertainment medium for children, Palitha said that it was a wrong notion. "UNICEF for most of its advertisements uses cartoons. Why is this. Because it has understood the power of cartoons. Like music the cartoon too is a universal medium which could be used anywhere, anytime and in any culture in any country".

The world experiences changes and development rapidly. The concept of a global village too had its day. In a fast moving world the concept of Open economies too seems to be outdated. This is a era where change is taking place hourly and in such a world they find innovative methods and introduce radical changes while we remain static.

Speaking of the creative talents in Sri Lanka, there is only a small percentage of high quality and standard productions. Our notoriety with the international community is only due to the ongoing conflict which has lasted for more than two decades. With the winning of the world cup and some awards at international games we gained some popularity. Why couldn't we excel in any other fields other than sports and cinema? We feel that the basis for this situation lies in the hearts of the people who have an 'Island mentality'.

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