The National Film Corporation has decided to seek legal redress against Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne for not repaying a loan lent to him for a cinematic creation, reports say.
Reports further say that Prof. Ariyaratne is to accept a jail sentence, citing that he is unable to payback.
A project to assist cinematic creators was initiated in the year 2000, when Dr. Tissa Abeysekara was the Chairman of the National Film Corporation.Under this project, several cinematic creators as well as producers of exceptional TV programmes were provided financial aid. Sudath Devapriya, Sudath Rohana, Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne, Priyantha Colombage, Dharmasiri Wickramaratne, Amaranath Jayatillake, Palitha Silva, Sathyajith Maitipe, Inoka Sathyangani, Malini Fonseka and several others were beneficiaries of this project.
However, present Chairman of the National Film Corporation Ashoka Serasinghe is taking measures to sue Sudath Devapriya, Priyantha Colombage and Prof. Ariyaratne. Similar measures were to be take earlier during Kumar Abeysinghe's tenure at the National Film Corporation but he refrained from doing so.
On Speaking to Prof. Ariyaratne, he says confirmed that he has already received a letter on this regard.
The letter states that I have to repay the NFC a sum of over Rs. 10 million to the NFC and that they will seek legal redress if I fail to repay that sum within seven days, he said. He further said that he is prepared even to accept a jail sentence.
Prof. Ariyaratne's maiden cinematic creation 'Sudu Sewaneli' in 2001 received Rs. 05 million under the above project.The film received several awards including Sarasavi awards and the Presidential award for the best cinematic creation. Creations of Sudath Devapriya, Priyantha Colombage and Inoka Sathyangani also received national and international accolades.