Dilanjan Seneviratne Launches Pettah Effect on His Birthday
First public release, 9 May 2018 | open auditions, workshops and two sold-out shows by September | Elevate Everything Entertainment
On 9 May 2018, his birthday, Dilanjan Seneviratne launched Pettah Effect, the music company he built to give emerging Sri Lankan artists a way in. Its first public release was Falan Andrea singing Sam Smith's One Last Song.
The company answered two years of research. Dilanjan had spent 2016 and 2017 at open mics, school music festivals and concerts around Colombo, and found talent everywhere but no route into the industry: no artist development, labels that had vanished with cassette and CD sales, and releases too expensive for new artists.
He named it after Pettah, Colombo's market district, where every kind of person meets. Any genre, any language and any background was welcome. The vision was Elevate Everything Entertainment, and the funding came almost entirely from Dilanjan, with Theewra Worldwide supplying video, editing and social media.
The first round was a continuous shoot of more than 36 hours that recorded 42 covers live, with Dilanjan directing and working as primary videographer. Pettah Effect published a behind-the-scenes film of it on 22 May 2018.
The company grew quickly through 2018. Highlights include:
June 2018: an open call offering selected artists three cover songs produced with video, free of charge, and coaching from seasoned artists.
30 July and 5 August 2018: a workshop and the Volume 2 live auditions, filmed at Margarita Blue in the Galadari Hotel, Colombo.
From 19 August 2018: guitar clinics with Mike De Silva, alongside vocal workshops with Dmitri Gunatilake and Monique Pallegama, sessions with Julius Mitchelle, and personal branding sessions led by Dilanjan himself.
Wednesday 5 September 2018: the first Open Mic, presented by Theewra at Margarita Blue, sold out before the night.
Sunday 30 September 2018: Ready for Love, an evening of acoustic love songs at The Re.Pub.lk, sold out as well, with Red Bull among the partners.
Open Mic was named as a challenge to Colombo's open-mic scene and ran as its reverse. Every artist was hand-picked, brought three to five songs in their own arrangement, sang without lyric sheets and rehearsed with a live band.
It became Dilanjan's method: fund the sessions, record the artists, market each show with the material, sell the tickets and bring sponsors in for show day. The Pettah Effect channel now holds 181 videos.
