Patta History: Telling Lankan stories with artistic appeal

Patta History Executive Producer Ruwani Hettiarachchi

Patta History Executive Producer Geeshan Bandara

History. Many of us disregard the topic as boring and uninteresting. But, what if history wasn’t boring? What if history could be retold in a more appealing manner? Enter the team behind Patta History. This team has been animating and narrating stories of our own Lankan history for the past few years and is on a mission to discover what it means to be ‘truly Sri Lankan’. Here, Patta History Executive Producers Geeshan Bandara and Ruwani Hettiarachchi tell us about Patta History, its purpose, process and plans:

By Amana Iflal

Q: What was the motive behind starting Patta History?

We began Patta History to discover our own identity. We realised that as young children with interrupted connections to Sri Lanka, we didn’t know enough about our own history. There are many more adults like us. At least three million Sri Lankans live overseas. Around one million of them have lived overseas for more than 10 years and want a connection with home for themselves and their children.

We also saw an emergence of cultural content. We felt that we consume too much of a certain type of media and not enough of our own. We wanted to make available high quality stories about Sri Lanka produced by Sri Lankans.

Finally, we wanted to contribute to the ongoing debate about what it means to be Sri Lankan. What is our true identity, if we indeed have just one? While we love telling historical stories, we also love what these stories tell us about ourselves: peeling away at the layers, stereotypes and getting to the bottom of why we are the way we are is an ultimate reward.

Q: What’s the research process like?

We do extensive research into all our stories using multiple resources like historical books, chronicles, working with career and professional historians, etc.

Q: What value do you think Patta History has over a more traditional historical documentary?

As mentioned above, it’s in the audiences we can reach. Our videos and stories are easy to understand and the artistic appeal in them transcends boundaries. We see this in our audience demographics that spans all age groups. Ever since we introduced Sinhala (and Tamil very soon!) content, we find that the audiences also come from various backgrounds. The value lies in the fact that we can reach anyone, anywhere and at any time. 

Q: When it comes to historical accuracy, what is the process of animation and production like?

Again, just like with the research, once a story is written, a storyboard is created. It then goes back to our writers and researchers to verify the look and feel of the characters. Even when the music is being produced or the voicing is being done, every step involves a level of research that we do to ensure that we are as close to the truth as possible.

Q: How did you gather up a team for such an initiative?

At the beginning it happened quite by accident. Once Ruwani and I (Geeshan) had the idea, we contacted Duval via Facebook and struck up a conversation about how we were going to execute this. Together with his talented team, the other guys just kept coming our way and just happened to fit in with this whole dynamic of a young bunch of people determined to preserve our history and tell stories in a fun, animated way.

Q: Tell us why you think we should all watch and subscribe to Patta History?

Well, as far as we know there is no other YouTube channel in Sri Lanka or the world for that matter that is telling Sri Lankan stories the way we do. That should be reason enough. The support we have received from our audiences here and globally has been phenomenal. Not just on YouTube, but we have patrons from around the world who have also pledged to support our work through Patreon.

Q: What other plans do you have regarding Patta History? Any future plans?

We want to keep telling more and more stories. There is so much that we still have to put out. We are about to get started with the Tamil translations of our current content and we see so much potential in reaching new audiences through them. 

In order to keep going we need to fund ourselves and that’s why we are now reaching out to communities and all our loyal viewers. All it takes is $ 1 per month on www.patron.com/pattahistory and if we can find 1,000 supporters who can contribute to the cause that way we can keep doing what we do. We want to keep our content free and accessible to everyone and to do that we need to grow our network and find support.

The videos and stories are easy to understand and their artistic appeal transcends boundaries

No other YouTube channel in Sri Lanka or the world tells Sri Lankan stories the way Patta History does

Supporting Patta History takes only $ 1 per month on Patreon

Patta History has a dynamic team determined to preserve Sri Lanka’s history and tell stories in a fun, animated way