When did Television come to Sri Lanka ? m..m...m..1982.. of course.

From Radio it borrowed producers,Script writers,Singers, Actors and

Administrators as well.

Mrs.Gnanam Ratnam from S.L.B.C became the head of the Tamil section.

Vicki (P.Wigneswaran) was the producer. He is the pioneer in producing Tele- Dramas, even before Sinhala producers think of it as viable.

I am supposed to act in the first Tele Drama produced by him for Rubavahini.

By coincidence, this script was produced as a Radio play by Vicki, when he was a producer at S.L.B.C and I did the main character. But unfortunately for me as I was stationed in Jaffna at that time, Announcer Nadarajasivam  was able to convince Vicki to offer him the main character in Jeyamohan's "Katpanaigal Kalaivathillai". I felt betrayed.

    Even when I returned to Colombo in 1983, I kept away from Rubavahini, due to this reversal. But when S.Visvanathan, producer of "Kathambari" a magazine programme,offered to include my mono act "Annai Right" in his programme, I conceded and it was my first appearence in SriLankan T.V

 

 

 

Since then, my relationship with "Kathambari" continued and flourished.

"Orderly Rasiah" - another mono act of mine.

"Pavam Saddampiar" - a comedy skit, but as the title indicated it was not seen by anybody in the South. Due to the 1983 communal riots all of us- the script writer, director, producer and actors were in Refugee camps fearing for our safety. So it's really 'Pavam' indeed !

         Cast:S.S.Ganeshapillai, K.S.Balachandran and others.

         Script:K.S.Balachandran

"Thedi Vantha Mayam"- a comedy skit, well appreciated.I even had a a love duet with Helen Kumari- "Vellai Puravonru" from film "Puthu Kavithai"

         Cast: S.S.Ganeshapillai, K.S.Balachandran, R.Rajaratnam,  Kamalini Selvarajan, Helen Kumari.

         Script:K.S.Balachandran         Telecast: 25.2.84

"Oru Mathiya Nera Idaivelaiyil" - all female cast skit. Very good concept. But not well received.

         Cast:Helen Kumari, Priya Jeyanthi, Nilani Nagaratnam, Subathra, A.M.C.Jeyajothi

         Script:K.S.Balachandran         Telecast: 27.4.84

"Pulugar Ponniah" - a portion from that popular stage play.

  Cast: S.S.Ganeshapillai, K.S.Balachandran, S.Kandasamy, Manimehalai Chithamparam

  Script: S.S.Ganeshapillai

"Nijankalin Tharisanam" - 2nd Tamil Tele Drama of Rubavahini

          By now P.Wigneswaran was ready to produce his 2nd Tele-Drama  and the cast was invited to Rubavahini for a discussion. There with a change of cast and I was given one of the two main characters in the story. In fact Vicki himself wrote the script and it turned out very well.  Indoor shooting at SivajiDorai's house and outdoor in Galle face area went on without any major mishaps except for one.   

          In one scene, I'm supposed to drive a car with my wife on my side and I used my personal influence to borrow a new car from a councillor friend. Car came to the shooting spot with the driver. I with great effort convinced him that I am supposed to drive, not him , but nobody not even Vicki knew the truth, that I don't know anything about driving. Myself and the actress who acted as my wife got into the car. I started and the noise heard when I changed the gear would have even startled the people living in Colpetty, few kilometres away.

         Driver came running towards the car and somebody from the production crew had to hold him back by force. But I continued with changing gears with more and more noise and stopped in front of the camera, where Vicki wanted me to stop. Myself and the actress got down gracefully and went towards the other actors and the shooting continued. When Vicki wanted to take a shot of us leaving, the car and driver were missing.

        With al these mishaps, this teledrama came out nicely and on telecast it was a great success as a trend setter in quality producton.

Shanthi and T.Rajeswaran were the best in acting.

Cast:Gunasingam, K.S.Balachandran,Shanthi Satchithanandan,Nilani Nagaratnam, T.Rajeswaran, Gopal Shanker,Era.Pathmanathan, Ragulan.

Sports programmes & Documentaries

       I was offered to do narration in Tamil of Sports Training Programmes originally made in Germany and after doing 20 odd programmes, went on a vacation to Jaffna. On my return, I was told Visvanathan is doing this programme presented  by the Sports Division of the Rubavahini.

      Wrote 2 documentaries, one on National Housing and the other on Hinduism both were produced by Feature Producer Balasubramaniam (Presently in Canada).

      Did many science programmes for kids, which were produced by Sivasubramaniam and Varatharajan.

Thiruppankal - Teledrama written by me

     When Silvister Balasubramaniam was put in charge of Tamil service  at Rubavahini for a short term, he requested me to write a script for a quick production, I wrote "Thiruppankal" and Aruna.Selvadurai  produced  it.

Myself, Kamalini Selvarajan, Artist Selva's daughter, Rajagopal and Sureshrajah made up the cast.

We shot the entire play in a house at Dehiwela and at the end of the shooting we were very sure of it's success.

And ME