Promoting Sri Lankan tourism musically with ‘Paradise Calling’

Monday, 23 December 2013 00:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Sarah Hannan Promoting our little motherland as the ‘Wonder of Asia’ is no easy task, as we compete with countries like Malaysia and Thailand. With the sort of advertising campaigns they carry out each year to promote their countries as leisure and business attractions. Our very own pop musicians were recently challenged to come up with a song that would encapsulate the scenic sights and the humanely rich culture and heritage. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Rumy Jauffer stated: “We have many video footages that we use at presentations. But up until now we did not have a song to promote Sri Lankan tourism. Our Minister during the preparation for the CHOGM Tourism Forum suggested that the curtain raiser for the forum should have a song and ‘Paradise Calling’ was launched across the 54 countries of the Commonwealth during the forum. This is how the idea of producing our very own tourism promotion song was conceived.” Jauffer thanked Bathiya and Santhush for the tireless efforts and for coordinating the production of the song and the video. The song has a local version ‘Sthuthi Sri Lanka’ – ‘Thank you Sri Lanka’ – and the international version ‘Paradise Calling’. Both the music videos were projected to the audience present.

"Team behind Paradise Calling and Sthuthi Sri Lanka Concept and directed by Bathiya and Santhush; music by Ken Lappen (Saregama Music); lyrics Kelum Srimal (Sinhala), Randhir Withana (English); performed by Bathiya and Santhush, Kasun Kalhara, Shanika Wanigasekara, Roshan Fernando, Bachi Susan, Sangeeth Wijesooriya, Nirosha Virajini, Ashanthi De Alwis, Umaria Sinhawansa, Lahiru Perera, Randhir Withana, Centigradz, Shiva Kumar, Sahan Ranwala, Jananath Warakagoda, Himasha Manupriya, Sarith and Surith, Buddika Ekanayake, Damien Fernando, Ayomi Perera." Concept behind ‘Sthuthi Sri Lanka’ and ‘Paradise Calling’

“We did not go to extremes when we sat down to compose the music and the videos. The lyricist for the local version Kelum Srimal suggested that we need to look at Sri Lanka in a different perspective. He came up with the idea of thanking Sri Lanka. We speak with pride about Sri Lanka and its rich heritage and scenic beauty and Kelum suggested, why don’t we thank Sri Lanka for giving us all these things we enjoy? I have to thank Ken Lappan from Saregama Music for the amazing musical arrangements,” Santhush Weeraman stated. When the song was shaping up the team then had to come up with a good video production: “Looking at the tourism promotions videos that were produced as far, we were a bit lost as to what visual frames we could include in the video. We should thank Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Bhashwara Gunarathna for the assistance he rendered towards coordinating the visual content for both the videos. A commendable task was carried out by Saminda of Saregama Films when editing the visual sequences for the videos using the latest editing techniques,” Santhush elaborated. "Paradise Calling - The Wonder of Asia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKgPTlpxf3Q Sthuthi Sri Lanka - The Wonder of Asia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejb9FeTq-w4" Santhush added that a music production involving Sri Lankan pop musicians was done after many years. He said that the team had put their passion toward making this video and there was a good synergy among the team. The international version of the song ‘Paradise Calling’ was penned by Randhir Withana and Randhir had suggested to Bathiya and Santhush that instead of thanking Sri Lanka we should attract the world’s attention by calling them to come and experience paradise. Artiste involvement Speaking on the collaboration of the artistes Bathiya Jayakody stated: “Initially we wanted to involve young musicians in Sri Lanka. Gathering the musicians were quite a challenge as we had to deal with different attitudes when we invited them to become a part of this project. But when all of them got down to making the music videos they were very cooperative. There were times where some of the musicians would travel to any location where we shot the video and did our recordings just after finishing an all night gig. The commitment and passion they showed towards realising this production was tremendous.” Lyrical build up “I must reiterate the fact that this was a team effort. There have been many collaborative music productions in the past which displayed patriotism towards the country and praised the country for its riches. This time we wanted to do something new, something different. These songs were not only made for CHOGM Tourism Forum but also to internally promote Sri Lankan Tourism. Before penning down the lyrics I viewed several videos that were produced by the tourism promotions bureau in the past and got an idea. I then worked around the lyrics keeping in mind the beauty of this country. We as Sri Lankans should be amazed about our country for its rich culture and heritage and our strength as a multi-ethnic community. Thanking Sri Lanka was a theme that was stuck in my head for quite sometime now and I am glad that I could bring it out through the lyrics for Sthuthi Sri Lanka,” Kelum Srimal, the lyricist of the Sinhala version of the tourism promotion song stated. Adding his thoughts on how he got around writing the lyrics for ‘Paradise Calling’ Randhir Withana said: “This project was one of the biggest undertakings I have done in my musical career and as an aspiring lyricist. I looked at other theme songs used in countries like Malaysia and the different approaches they have used in their videos. I wanted to embody the image of Sri Lanka in this song and looking back at the process I should say that it was quite inspiring.” The launch of both the songs was held at Ape Gama in Battaramulla on 19 December and was attended by the members of the Tourism Promotion Bureau, Deputy Minister of Economic Development M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, Public Recreational Affairs Ministry Secretary Willie Gamage and Nkar Tours & Travels Managing Director Nilmin Nanayakkara and the musicians who were a part of the music video and its production team. The ceremony wrapped up after presenting DVDs of the songs to the musicians. Pix by Upul Abayasekara