Jackson trying to shoot tele at Ratnapura Saman Devala ....
abandons shooting because of protest
An incident was reported yesterday of a case where popular film and tele-creator Jackson Anthony had gone to start shooting of a teledrama at the historic Saman Devale where people in the area had protested against it and ultimately he has had to
abandon it.The reason for this protest was that the lower compound of Saman Devala in Ratnapura was utilised for shooting of the teledrama called Sigiri Kashyapa which incidentally happened to be given a distorted outlook. The group attending to Jackson's Tele-background creations had anticipated making arrangements by portraying this location as the point of access to the palace of King Kashyapa and were fixing the background equipment suitable to give a royal outlook.
On that occasion the Kapumathas of Saman Devale had got together with the masses and questioned as to what was going to be done. They had expressed their displeasure about making use of adopting various changes in that land for the creations by distorting the natural look of the Saman Devale and that permission could be given if no changes are effected in the natural outlook.
However, the requirement of Jackson and his group was to portray it as a portion of the palace of King Kashyapa and had said that those changes were essential for such a purpose. It was after that the Kapumahathas had approached the Ratnapura MP Mr. A.A. Wijeytunga by bringing forward their protest. They had found on further inquiry that no previous permission had been obtained for a creation such as this at Saman Devale which in fact is a reserved location belonging to the Archaeological Department. The MP Wijeytunga had then arrived at the location meant for shooting of the teledrama and discussed about this conflict after which Jackson and his group had given up shooting and had left the place, it was reported.