‘Daddy’ Brings A Censor Board To Sri Lankan Music

Sri Lanka’s most famous youth band “Daddy’s” new song “Tiken tika”sung by Gayan Perera created a much chaos in the Sri Lankan Buddhist society. The controversial song includes a Buddhist chant ‘Bhavathu Sabba Mangalam’ – which is used to invoke blessings, rapped with western music. The sequence of the music video where the chant is included also portrays inappropriate visual content that shows a couple in their honeymoon.

Several parties including the Jathika Hela Urumaya opposed against the release of the song – ‘Tiken Tika’ stating that the song should be banned. A Buddhist monk in Sunethradevi Temple Gangodawila also made a complaint against the song in the Mirihana police. Earlier the song “Sitti Maneela” by Iraj has created a similar chaos which leads to banned of the song as it stirred the Muslim community.

In respond to the allegations Daddy band has posted a reply in their Face Book fan page;

In light of the controversy generated by our video for ‘Tiken Tika’ we felt it was the appropriate time to respond to the allegations directed against us. Before going into detail, we’d like re-iterate that we have no intention of insult, abuse or belittle any religion, language, cast or creed and that we have the utmost respect for all of the above. Our fans come from all corners of the country and around the world regardless of what their ethnic or religious background is.

We fully understand the special place this stanza has for Buddhists as it is used in multiple occasions to bless (ashirwada) a person or a group of people. We wouldn’t want to hide behind a curtain of negligence or pretend we didn’t understand the importance of that stanza. It is for that specific reason it is included in the first place.

While we’d like to apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused, we’d like to re-iterate that we don’t believe we have insulted or abused Buddhism or Buddhists in any shape or form. Although the 5 of the band members are of the catholic faith, we belong to a much larger team that includes individuals of other faiths including Buddhism.

I being a Buddhist myself personally believe that the critics have over reacted as if you watch the whole video one could clearly understand that there were no intention of harming a religion there. For Gayan Perera, this type of chaos situation may not be strange as his “daddy” Sunil Perera the leader of the Band Gypsies may be the most criticized artist in Sri Lanka. When Gypsies released their songs “Lunu Dehi”,”Ojaye” “Saima cut wela”, “Piti kotapan none” etc the lankan critics criticized them as a havoc to the pure Sri Lankan music.

However a cabinet paper would be tabled soon to introduce a censor board to the Sri Lankan music according to the Minister of Cultural Affairs, T.B. Ekanayake. A mechanism would be introduced to subject all musical creations before a censor board prior to their release in Sri Lanka. I think the censor should also posed on the International music videos before releasing them to the Sri Lankan market as most of them have inappropriate visual content including semi nude scenes. But it should not create a conflict between the Young and the older generation in the music field.

The role of the proposed censor board is not published yet, but do you think there will be songs under the categories “More suitable for Adults” & “Adults Only” in the future of Sri Lankan music industry? We at Lanka Help Magazine always welcome your valuable comments.