Teleview adds local flavour to SriLankan Airlines in-flight entertainment

The in-flight entertainment programme on SriLankan Airlines, ‘Prathibha Prabha,’ has completed two years of entertaining passengers. The popular series’ third season commenced with its first episode shot on location at the Teleview studio premises in Maharagama, recently.

SriLankan Airlines CEO Manoj Gunawardena initiated ‘Prathibha Prabha’ two years ago, with the aim of making local passengers onboard SriLankan flights feel at home and give them a sense of familiarity.

Another important objective of this programme is to reintroduce some of the country’s great artistes to local passengers in a new light, whilst giving everyone travelling on SriLankan Airlines an opportunity to enjoy local talent and a taste of Lankan culture.

For the opening segment of the third season, a biographical documentary of veteran actress Iranganie Serasinghe, presented and narrated by Nayana Kumari, a talented and popular actress in her own right, has just completed production.

‘Prathibha Prabha’ has formerly featured industry heavyweights such as Film Directors Dr. Lester James Peiris, Prasanna Vithanage, Sumithra Peiris and Somaratne Dissanayake and actors Malini Fonseka, Joe Abeywickreme, Ravindra Randeniya, Geetha Kumarasinghe, Tony Ranasinghe, Anoja Weerasinghe and many more. Sunil Ratnayake, award winning television Producer/Director and CEO of Teleview (Pvt) Ltd. directed all episodes of the production.

With the advent of ‘Prathibha Prabha,’ SriLankan Airlines’ in-flight entertainment magazine too was made available in Sinhalese for the benefit of its Sinhala speaking passengers. In a bid to enhance local in-flight programming even further, a brand new channel featuring documentaries on Sri Lanka is also in the pipeline, to be launched soon.

Teleview, which begun as a fledgling production house 25 years ago, has come of age. After topping the deck with the most number of successful tele-series, documentaries, TV commercials and prestigious awards, Teleview has become a name to reckon with, giving a new face to the entertainment landscape in the country.

Apart from establishing itself as the premier multimedia production house over three solid decades in the industry, the company has also diversified in to areas such as home entertainment, business process outsourcing, productions for international audiences and training.

The first in the country to introduce 3D computer animation to the local television industry, Teleview now boasts its own permanent shooting locations (referred to as Video Villages) both in Badulla and Maharagama with another planned to launch in Haputale.

The tele-dramas, ‘Bhawatra’ and ‘Sihina Isawwa,’ were made using computer technology and ‘Bhawatra’ especially, relied on CGI and 3D digital video effects for the portrayal of extra terrestrial characters.

Teleview entered the international arena in 1997, with the signing of a joint venture agreement with Rafael Film Productions in Paris, for the production of English Tele-series ‘The Tea Garden’ and ‘Flower Garden’. Soon after that, in 1998 the company opened its first offshore branch in Hollywood, California, with the aim of propagating local productions abroad as well as co-producing commercials and documentaries. Since then, Teleview has extended its operations to both Japan and Australia.

Under the aegis of Ratnayake, entrepreneur businessman and award winning producer/director, Teleview has over the years helped shape Sri Lanka’s television industry, and hopes to take the local industry to standards that can compete with the biggest international players.

In keeping with that vision, the In-flight Entertainment Division of Teleview (Pvt) Ltd. is also supplying programming to Emirates and Qatar Airways and is conducting an expansion programme to supply Sinhala language productions to Etihad, Oman and Kuwait Singapore Airlines, amongst others.