original_language_of_work sankara 
The Sinhalese ( ___MASK79___ :         ___MASK79___ Jathiya , also known as Hela or Sinhale ) are an Indo - Aryan ethnic group native to the island of Sri Lanka . They constitute 75 % of the Sri Lankan population and a number greater than 15 million . The Sinhalese identity is based on language , historical heritage and religion . The Sinhalese people speak the Sinhalese language , an Indo - Aryan language , and are predominantly Theravada Buddhists , although a small percentage of Sinhalese follow branches of Christianity . The Sinhalese are mostly found in North central , Central , South , and West Sri Lanka . According to Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa , written by Buddhist monks of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in Sri Lanka , around the 3 - 5th century , an ancient treatise written in Pali , the Sinhalese are descendants of the settlers who came to the island in 543 BCE from Sinhapura in India , led by Prince Vijaya . The Kadamba script ( known as " Pre Old ___MASK18___ script ") marks the birth of a dedicated script for writing ___MASK18___ . It is a descendant of the Brahmi script , an abugida visually close to the Kalinga alphabet . The Kadamba script was developed during the reign of the Kadamba dynasty in the 4th - 6th centuries . The Kadamba script is also known as Pre - Old - ___MASK18___ script . This script later became popular in what is today the state of Goa and was used to write Sanskrit , ___MASK18___ , Konkani and ___MASK17___ . The Sinhalese alphabet ( Sinhalese :            ) ( Sihala Akara Mlva ) is an abugida used by the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka and elsewhere to write the Sinhalese language and also the liturgical languages ___MASK33___ and Sanskrit . The Sinhalese alphabet , which is one of the Brahmic scripts , a descendant of the ancient Indian Brahmi script closely related to the South Indian Kadamba alphabet . The Brahmic scripts are a family of abugida or alphabet writing systems . They are used throughout the Indian Subcontinent , Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia , and were once used in Japan , and are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India . They are used by languages of several language families : Indo - European , Dravidian , Tibeto - Burman , Mongolic , Austroasiatic , Austronesian , Turkic , Tai . They were also the source of the dictionary order of ___MASK70___ " kana ". Sinhalese , known natively as ___MASK79___ (" singhala " ), is the native language of the Sinhalese people , who make up the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka , numbering about 16 million . Sinhalese is also spoken as a second language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka , totalling about four million . It belongs to the Indo - Aryan branch of the Indo - European languages . Sinhalese has its own writing system , the Sinhalese alphabet , which is one of the Brahmic scripts , a descendant of the ancient Indian Brahmi script closely related to the Kadamba alphabet . Prasanna Jayakody ( born 1968 ) is a Sri Lankan film director . His debut film Sankara ( Introspection ), won The Special Jury Prize The Silver Pyramid at the Cairo International Film Festival 2006 and the Best Debut Director Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala 2006 . Sankara ( ___MASK74___ : Introspection ) is a 2006 Sinhalese language film directed by debutant , Prasanna Jayakody . The film is about the inner struggle of a young Buddhist monk who finds himself attracted to a pretty village girl . India , officially the Republic of India (" Bhrat Gaarjya "), is a country in South Asia . It is the seventh - largest country by area , the second - most populous country ( with over 1 . 2 billion people ), and the most populous democracy in the world . It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south , the Arabian Sea on the southwest , and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast . It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west ; China , Nepal , and Bhutan to the northeast ; and Myanmar ( Burma ) and Bangladesh to the east . In the Indian Ocean , India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives . India ' s Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and ___MASK73___ . Its capital is New Delhi ; other metropolises include Mumbai , Kolkata , Chennai , Bangalore , Hyderabad and Ahmedabad . Sri Lanka ( or ; Sinhalese :         ', ___MASK47___ :     " Ilakai "), officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( formerly known as Ceylon ), is an island country in South Asia near south - east India . Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest . The Indo - European languages are a language family of several hundred related languages and dialects . There are about 445 living Indo - European languages , according to the estimate by " Ethnologue ", with over two - thirds ( 313 ) of them belonging to the Indo - Iranian branch . The most widely spoken Indo - European languages by native speakers are ___MASK34___ , English , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Portuguese , Bengali , Russian , Persian and Punjabi , each with over 100 million speakers . Today , 46 % of the human population speaks an Indo - European language natively , by far the highest of any language family . The International Film Festival of Kerala ( IFFK " Anthardeshiya chalachitrolsavam keralam ") is a film festival held annually in Thiruvananthapuram ( Trivandrum ), the capital city of Kerala , India . This film festival was started in 1996 and is hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy on behalf of Department of Cultural Affairs , Government of Kerala . The festival is held in November / December every year and is acknowledged as one of the leading such events in India . Several national and international films have their premiers at the IFFK each year . Competition section is limited to 14 selected films produced in Asia , Africa or ___MASK80___ America . The festival also has a section devoted to ___MASK82___ cinema . On the lines of the IFFK , the Chalachitra Academy also organises the " International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala ".