A group of locals in Kandy along with The Basnayake Nilame of the Alawathugoda Saman Devalaya, Jayamapathi Hingkenda had protested against a group of foreigners dressed in the traditional Kandyan outfits who allegedly behaved in an “indecent manner, disgracing the outfits”, last evening (02).

Subsequently, the Kandy Police had intervened and escorted the group of foreigners into the Queen’s Hotel to ensure their safety.

Reportedly, the group had been filming a documentary for a competition in Hungary.

Basnayake Nilame Jayamapathi Hingkenda stated that two male tourists – one dressed in traditional nilame outfit and the other in a ‘distorted’ outfit similar to the traditional Kandyan female clothing – behaved in a manner which ‘disgraced’ the traditional outfits.

Accordingly, he requested all the footage of the relevant scenes to be destroyed.

The group’s local producer Iranthi Abeysinghe stated that they had acquired all necessary permission from government institutes to conduct these filming activities including the Ministry of Defense and the National Film Corporation.

However, she said that if everyone including the Basnayake Nilame objects to this, they are willing to destroy the said footage.

Hingkenda mentioned that they agree to the delete of the footage captured and that the film crew should certify that they had properly destroyed those scenes.

Further commenting, Hingkenda said that the government institutions who allowed this should have been more aware and that anything which would harm the identity of the local culture should not be granted permission.

Subsequently, the footage of the relevant scenes was deleted, according to Ada Derana reporter.