These were not however hapless people who were desperate for petrol and gas as was seen in mid-2022 when Sri Lanka faced a debilitating economic crisis. The film received five of the eight awards at the 2014 UN Vesak Buddhist Film festival in Hanoi, Vietnam including the Best Featured film, Best Actor award and Best Director award. Indian national, Gagan Malik was cast as the adult Buddha and Pakistani national Suleman Daud as the young Siddhartha, alongside many other actors and actresses from Sri Lanka and India. The Sri Lankan cast included those who were of Christian cultural backgrounds and Buddhist. Sri Lanka has a majority population of around 70% who are Buddhist and other Sri Lankans are Muslim (around 10%), Christian (around 8%) and Hindu (around 12%).

Source: The Nation June 28, 2024 15:08 UTC