Why was PABA PUSHED?

By Jatila Karawita

Lead actress of the highly-popular mega tele-series “Paba’ screened on Independent Television Network (ITN), Upeksha Swarnamali, who is currentlyfacing a maelstrom of media controversy, says that the treatment meted out to her on the production sets of the drama smacks of political vengeance - after she publicly proclaimed her backing of common presidential opposition candidate general (rtd) Sarath Fonseka.
In a brief interview with LAKBIMAnEWS, Swarnamali said that from the moment she announced her support for general Sarath Fonseka last December, for his bid to assume the presidency at the January 26 polls -- she had noticed that all was not well with the ‘Paba’ set.
She stressed that one of the main reasons for the abrupt postponement of the shooting schedule of the extremely popular mega drama ‘Paba’ now screened on a prime time belt on ITN till the end of the presidential hustings -- could be her involvement with the presidential election campaign of the common opposition candidate -- though no one connected to the top rated drama had intimated anything to her.
Upeksha Swarnamali further added that she decided to support General Sarath Fonseka as per her own conscience despite the UPFA government trying to woo her towards the President’s election platform through the Tharunyata Hetak Foundation. She says amost of the mainstream popular artistes were wooed this way.
Asked what would become of her character in the long-running mega drama, she said it would all hinge on the decision taken by director, Shantha Soyza and script writer Mahesh Sathsara Maddumarachchi.
But, she noted that it was terribly disappointing from her point of view to see the shooting schedule of the drama being postponed, on account of one artiste’s political affiliation with a presidential candidate, as it could have a detrimental effect on the ratings of the drama itself from the standpoint of its countless viewers countrywide.

Professed

However, she was quick to note that had she professed her unstinted support to the UPFA candidate none of this would have happened, and ‘Paba’ could have gained more publicity than it could have ever hoped for.Swarnamali though, emphasised that she would not renege on her commitment to back general Fonseka to become president, irrespective of whether her role is totally dispensed with or not, despite her political affiliations. She was in no doubt that all artistes, even the ones who are purportedly supporting the president at political rallies would back the former army chief at the January 26 polls.
When ITN was contacted to ascertain views on the issue, as the channel telecasts the famous mega series, Chairman Anura Siriwardene noted that his channel always telecasts tele-dramas which express the feelings of the common folk and that political preferences of stars was irrelevant and immaterial to them.
He observed that any part in a tele-drama or movie could undergo changes, depending on how it is written for the screen by the scriptwriter. Hence to infer that a single actress who has certain political connections could have a say on it would be furthest from the truth.
Siriwardene commented that during election time, people would have more pressing problems to deal with, rather than to wonder whether the lead actress of a popular drama had suddenly ‘vanished’ from the screen ---- and advised us to contact the director and scriptwriter of the tele-drama to get to the bottom of the story.
He dismissed any suggestions and claims that political vengeance could be at the centre of the postponement of the shooting schedule of ‘Paba’ and said that if the role of the lead actress is not currently on, it could be more to do with the script and insisted that the drama will continue to gain top ratings as it had done before.
Our efforts to contact the director of ‘Paba’ or its script writer proved futile.