Ranatunga part of Lanka tourism delegation to India

COLOMBO, January 13: In its efforts to hard sell the Sri Lankan tourism sector with immediate focus on sites relating to 'Ramayana', the island nation's Tourism Development Authority has included former cricket star Arjuna Ranatunga as a member of the delegation to tour India next week.
"The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Chief Arjuna Ranatunga will be accompanying the tourism delegation to India from January 15 onwards," Chairman of the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), S Kalaiselvam, told here.
The delegation will meet senior Indian tourism officials on January 16 and present a 45-minute film on 'Ramayana' trails in the island country, he said, adding efforts would be made to attract several Indian devouts to Sri Lanka.
A Sri Lankan tourism team had earlier also spent a few days in India to seek guidance and help in sequencing and authenticating the facts related to Ramayana, especially in the island country.
A 25-hour film shooting of various Ramayana sites in Sri Lanka has been condensed to a 45-minute movie and will be shown to Indian authorities during the tour of the Sri Lankan delegation.
The film also explains the probability of Ravana having a vast aviation network to support his gliders.
The film shows that Sita, after being kidnapped by Ravana, was taken to Goorulupota, now known as Sitakotuwa, which is near the picturesque Kandy, located about 116 kms from Colombo.