Award winning filmmaking duo Somaratne Dissanayake and Renuka Balasuriya’s latest cinematic venture, ‘Bindu’ is next on line to be screened at the EAP circuit. The story centres on the issue of the elephant - human conflict, a problem which had been in the news for more than three decades.

Shot on location at Sigiriya, the story focuses on a touching tale of a relationship between Bindu, a young calf elephant, and two children. Keeping with their tradition of introducing young talent to the screen, Somaratne and Renuka have brought two child actors to cinema.

Sachin Chathuranga, the younger brother of Dasun Madusanka who played the lead roles in ‘Samanala Thatu’ and ‘Sooriya Arana’, portrays the role of Muthu while Ruvindika Ishadini takes on the character of Malee.

“These children were chosen after a series of interviews. We received around 3000 applications and 50 children who were chosen during the interviews took part in a workshop. We made our choice after observing their talents after the training sessions,” Dissanayake told Sunday Observer ‘Magazine’. “Human-elephant conflicts had constantly been in the news. It is not a problem for those in the city but it had become a menace for villagers living near the elephant infested jungles. They live in fear for their crop as well as their lives,” he stressed. It had taken two years for the director to track down the suitable elephant for Bindu’s role. Finally the search had come to a close in Tissamaharama.

An elephant trainer had to be summoned from India to train the baby tusker.

‘Bindu’ is probably my most challenging project for I had to work with elephants in a majority of the scenes. It is tough shooting from different angles when you are directing animals,” he said adding that though he had used some animals in a couple of clips in ‘Sooriya Arana’ nothing had prepared him for the amount of hard work that had to be put up with while shooting ‘Bindu’.

Queried if he markets children’s movies as a means of earning profit, the award-winning director said, “I do not focus on how much money I would earn when I think of embarking on a project. However my films have been crowd-pullers and have earned their share of profit. If someone claims that I use children in key roles to make profit, their accusations are made purely out of jealousy. I concentrate on sending a meaningful message to society,” he stressed. However he revealed that his next project is not children oriented.

Jayalath Manoratne, Kumara Thirimadura, Jayani Senanayake, Athula Liyanage and a few others comprise the rest of the cast. Award winning actor of the stage play ‘Charandas’, Jayantha Muthuthanthri, debuts through ‘Bindu’. The script is by Dissanayake and the cameraman is Suminda Weerasuriya. Rohana Weerasinghe did the music scores for a song sung by a group of children led by Madugeeth Dissanayake. The art director is Sunil Wijeratne while the make up is done by Ebert Wijesinghe. The assistant director is Duminda Madawala. Renuka Balasuriya is the production manager and producer.

‘Bindu’ will enter the theatres after ‘Julia’.

http ://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/08/30/mag16.asp