‘Ceylinco VIP Cyber Tharu’ showcasing Sri Lankan talent concludes successfully

Ceylinco General Insurance Chairman/CEO Patrick Alwis handing over the cash prize to the winner of the singing category (left), whilst Ceylinco General Insurance Managing Director Upali Witharana (right) handed over the prize to the winners of the dancing category 

Ceylinco General Insurance announced that its novel online competition – ‘Ceylinco VIP Cyber Tharu’ – which was promoted over a period of four months, concluded successfully with the announcement of the Grand Prize winners last week. 

Mathinathan Loganathan, who received 56,600 votes, won the singing competition, and Team Agini, which received over 77,000 votes, was selected as winners of the dancing segment. Both winners received handsome cash prizes whilst six randomly picked voters too were rewarded with valuable cash prizes. They were randomly selected amongst over 375,000 voters who enthusiastically and actively participated in the voting process. 

Ceylinco General Insurance Chairman/CEO Patrick Alwis said, “We thank all those who participated in the Ceylinco VIP Cyber Tharu competition. We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and the interest shown by the contestants. This time, our effort was to organize an online competition that provides an opportunity for Sri Lankans to display their talent and also to identify hidden talents whilst rewarding them. This was a novel concept and the competition was initially announced through social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, as well as LinkedIn, and was embraced by many, especially talented youngsters to showcase their talents.”

The competition was held in two stages and initially contestants were encouraged to send in their entries within a stipulated time period. They were given the opportunity to participate individually, as a family, or a group. Subsequently, the entries were scrutinised by an independent and imminent panel of judges comprising of industry professionals, Bhathiya Jayakody and Santhush Weeraman, Pooja Umashankar and Ramod Malaka.   

A special website was hosted for this purpose enabling the contestants and the public to view all details relating to the guidelines, criteria and regulations of the competition and voting in all three languages. All the received entries amounting to over 450 were sent to the panel of judges who selected the best 35 each from dancing and singing categories which were put forward for the voting round. Due to the limited number of entries received for instrumental performances, fashion designing and standup comedy, these three categories were dropped out from the voting stage. 

The uniqueness of the competition was that the selected performances were sent back to the contestants for them to post them on their individual social media platforms. Thereafter, they encouraged their friends and followers to vote for them through the website. Accordingly, the contestants that received the highest number of votes were announced as winners.