Sinhala Movie "Adaraneeya Kathavak" Accused of Violating the NATA Act

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Background

Image 1: The promotional trailer of ‘’Adaraneeya Kathavak’’ depicting its main character holding a cigarette in his hand.[1]

Adaraneeya Kathawak (English: A melody of Love) is a 2016 Sri Lankan movie in Sinhala language. Directed by Priyantha Colombage, it was co-produced by Priyantha Kolambage and Chaminda Gamage.

Both Priyantha Kolambage and Chaminda Gamage are executives in the marketing and advertisement industry. Insights Pvt. Ltd. headed by Chaminda Gamage listed a beer company as one of their clients in their website.[2][3]

The film, influenced by Bollywood romantic musical Aashiqui 2 premiered on 10th June 2016 at the Colombo Regal Cinema.[4] [5][6]

Direct and Indirect Promotions of Tobacco and Alcohol

The movie had scenes depicting consumption of tobacco and alcohol. The promotional trailer of the movie (Image 1) featured the main character (Hemal Ranasinghe) drinking alcohol with a cigarette in his hand.

Tobacco Advertisements are Prohibited in Sri Lanka

Scientific evidence reveals that youth exposed to tobacco advertising and promotion hold positive attitudes towards tobacco use, increasing their risk of initiation and sustenance of the habit. Thus, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommends complete ban of tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship. You can read more in our page FCTC Article 13: Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship

National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) Act, the main legal framework on tobacco and alcohol, prohibits direct and indirect advertisements on tobacco and alcohol. According to the Article 35.1 of NATA Act:

“A person shall not publish or cause to be published, or authorize the publication of, tobacco advertisement or an alcohol advertisement.”

According to the NATA Act, “tobacco advertisement” means:

“any writing, still or moving picture, sign, symbol or distinctive colours or other visual image or any audible message or any combination of the aforesaid that promotes or is intended to promote – smoking, the purchase or use of a tobacco product, a trade mark registered in respect of a tobacco product or articles that include tobacco products, a brand name associated with a tobacco product, the name of the manufacturer of a tobacco product.”

NATA Complaint

The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) filed a police complaint on 21st June 2016 stating that the film violates provisions of the NATA Act on direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco.[7][8]

NATA observed that some scenes violated the legal clause on direct advertisements by displaying trademarks of some cigarette brands (Dunhill). National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) reported that the film included 15 scenes promoting tobacco use, thus violating the clause on indirect advertisements as well.[9]

The Court Decisions

The complaint was taken up at Colombo Magistrate’s Court. At the first hearing, the court ordered the director, National Film Corporation Chairman and Majestic Cinema Manager to provide a full-length version of the movie to the police to observe scenes promoting tobacco, violating the section 35 of the NATA Act. This was in the context of film Director Priyantha Colombage reporting that he didn’t have a copy of the film to handover to the courts.[10][11][12][13]

In the next hearing, the Police confirmed that the alleged film contained such scenes and included promotive scenes of Dunhill Cigarette brand.[14][15]

Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Pieris refused to issue an interim order banning the screening of the film as NATA requested, stating “film should be considered as a whole”. The verdict received wide media coverage.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]

The Director Priyantha Colombage, main actor Hemal Ranasinghe and supporting actor Bimal Jayakody criticized the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) for the litigation.[34] [21][22][25][23][24][35][26][27][36] [28][32][33]

Tobacco Unmasked Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Cinema.lk. Adaraneeya Kathawak Official Teaser Trailer, undated, accessed January 2018
  2. ↑ Insights.lk. package design, undated, accessed October 2018
  3. ↑ Creative Forces. Director, 2018, accessed October 2018
  4. ↑ Adaraneeya Kathawak, wikivisually.com, 8 June 2017, accessed August 2017
  5. ↑ Daily news. Adaraneeya Kathawak premier, 24 June 2016, accessed January 2018
  6. ↑ Regal Cinema Facebook Page. Adaraneeya Kathawak Premiere, 9 June 2016, accessed January 2018
  7. ↑ Sri Lanka Brief. No Ban Against Film ‘Adaraneeya Kathawak’, 12 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  8. ↑ Shehan Chamika Silva. Spotlight on Adaraneeya Kathawak over violation of Tobacco Alcohol Act, Daily Mirror, 03 July 2016, accessed December 2017
  9. ↑ S Kumari, Dinamina.11 July 2016
  10. ↑ L Sooriyagoda Film Adaraneeya Kathavak violates statutory laws: Tobacco and Alcohol Authority, Daily News, 01 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  11. ↑ N Abeywickrama, "ආදරණීය කතාවක්" චිත්‍රපටය දූම්කොළ පනත උල්ලංඝනය කරලා, Lankadeepa, 02 July 2016,accessed August 2017
  12. ↑ SC Silva, Violation of Tobacco, Alcohol Act. Director, producer of ‘ Adaraneeya Kathawak’ questioned, Daily Mirror, 9 July 2017, accessed August 2017
  13. ↑ SC Silva Spotlight on Adaraneeya Kathawak over violation of Tobacco, Alcohol Act, Hulft's Dorp, 01 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  14. ↑ N Abeywickrama, "ආදරණීය කතාවක්" චිත්‍රපටය පෙන්වීමි නවත්වනවාද? නැද්ද? විභාගය 11 වැනිදාට, Lankadeepa, 9 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  15. ↑ S Kumari, "ආදරණීය කතාවක්" තහනම් කිරීමේ නියෝගය සලකා බැලීමේ නඩුව අද, Dinamina, 11 July 2017, accessed August 2017
  16. ↑ Ll Sooriyagoda. A Melody of Love can Continue, Daily News, 13 July 2017, accessed August 2017
  17. ↑ SC Silva, Injuction order on ‘Adaraneeya Kathawak’ Magidtrate rejects NATA request, 13 July 2017, accessed August 2017
  18. ↑ S Kumari, ආදරණීය කතාවක් තහනම් නෑ, 13 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  19. ↑ S Ranasinghe, ආදරණීය කතාවක් තහනම් කරන්නැයි ඉල්ලු පෙත්සම ප්‍රතික්ෂේපයි, 13 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  20. ↑ I Rathnakara, ආදරණීය කතාවට ආදරණීය තීන්දූවක්,13 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lakbima, දූම්වැටි තහංචිය කලාවට වාරණයක් නොවිය යුතුය, 14 July 2017, accessed August 2017
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 I Rathnakara, ආදරණීය කතාවක් චිත්‍රපටියට උසාවිය ලබාදූන් ආදරණීය තීන්දූව මෙන්න, 14 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 A Alahakoon, ආදරණීය කතාවක් අධිකරණය හමුවේ තහනම් කළොත් නිර්මාණකරුවන් ඈත්වේවි. සිනමා කර්මාන්තයත් බිඳ වැටේවි, 15 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Mavbima, බක තපස් තියරියට ආදරණීය තීන්දූවක්, 15 July 2016, accesssed August 2017
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lankadeepa, කඩාවැටුණු සිනමාවට ආදරණීය කතාවක් උත්තේජනයක්, 15 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 A Galappaththi, සිනමාව අළු වෙද්දී සිගරට් කොට පිටුපස පැන්නීම, 17 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 T Jayasundara, ආදරණීය කතාවක් කියන්නේ සිගරට්, මත්පැන් බොන්න එපා කියන ආදරණීය පණිවිඩයයි, 18 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 A Alahakoon, කතා කරලා වැඩක් නෑ. මම ඉන්නේ කලකිරිලා. සිගරට් මත්පැන් ප්‍රවර්ධන චෝදනාව ඍජුවම එල්ලවන්නේ මටයි - හේමාල් රණසිංහ, 22 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  29. ↑ TK Wijesinghe, නඩු තීන්දූව නිසා ආදරණීය කතාවක් ගොඩ ගියාද?,31 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  30. ↑ Y Yasodara, කම්මුල් පහර ගැන සමාජයේ ලොකු අවධානයක් යොමුවෙලා - හේමාල් රණසිංහ, 31 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  31. ↑ N Madhushika, ආදරණීය කතාවක් සහ පත්තිනි එකම කාලයේ ප්‍රදර්ශනයවීම කර්මාන්තයට සිදූවූ ලොකු පාඩුවක් - ආදරණීය කතාවක් අධ්‍යක්ෂක ප්‍රියන්ත කොළඹගේ, 23 August 2016, accessed August 2017
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 TK Wijesinghe, මත්පැන් දූම්වැටි ආදීනව කියන චිත්‍රපටියට විරුද්ධවීම මට පුදූමයක්, 29 August 2016, accessed August 2017
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Sarasaviya, ආදරණීය කතාව නඩුවෙන් බේරෙයි, accessed August 2017
  34. ↑ S Rajapaksha,අභීමාන වගේ ආදරය කරන්න මා කැමැතියි - හේමාල්, 24 June 2016, acccessed August 2017
  35. ↑ P Kodippili, සිනමාවම මාර නඩුවක්නේ, 15 July 2016, accessed August 2017
  36. ↑ A Premalal, නිර්මාණකරුවන්ගේ රැකවරණයට අවශ්‍ය ප්‍රතිපාදන ලබාදෙන්න, 19 July 2016, accessed August 2017
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