Award-winning filmmaker Parakrama Jayasinghe who shared details about his newest movie ‘Que Sera Sarah’ last week, also expressed his candid views about cinema.

“I always believe that the main purpose of a film must be for entertainment. If you fail to entertain the filmgoer it means you have failed. For me, the number one priority in a piece of cinematic work should be entertainment, number two is entertainment and number three is also entertainment. You may add other factors after these main concerns. You are not paying money and going to see a film to redress grievances in society. You are going to escape from the daily chores and daily troubles for at least for 2 hours in the confines of the cinema hall. Who wants to go to cinema and come back home, wrack up your brains and think what had happened in the movie. We have enough and more problems and why should we add more problems after watching a movie,” he said.

“Ours is a small industry and we can’t spend huge sums to make a movie. I think we should limit a film to 15 or 20 copies, because the purpose behind making films is to make money. Yes, it can be an art but it’s part of the entertainment industry.

I also believe that if a film is good people will go and watch the film. Of course they will complain about condition of the cinema hall. You can’t do a film that does not attract people and later blame the cinema halls. Those excuses are not valid.

It’s up to the cinema hall owners to create a good atmosphere for the filmgoers who pay to patronize their theatres. Isn’t it ethical on the part of the owners to do so? People come to the cinema to escape from their daily troubles. If you go to deny that to the people, it’s not fair. I won’t agree if anyone says a film failed because the cinemas were bad.

However much you may advertise, it’s the word of mouth that has the power to make a film run. This reality applies to any part of the world. People go to see a film to relish a piece of art and not to see how much had been spent on it. Works of art is not related to money at all,” said Parakrama whose latest film ‘Que Sera Sarah’ will unspool on the silver screen soon.