ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes a select number of theatrical and cinematic texts where Ravana figures as a main character in the popular cultural context in Sri Lanka from the twentieth to the twenty-first century. It examines the socio-political and economic workings of these retellings which render Ravana a hero in both Sinhala and Tamil cultural contexts. The chapter explores how the modern myths of Ravana are entangled in ideologies of nationalism, neoliberalism and power and how the image of Ravana is always already in a process of transformation. It discusses within a framework of translation, rewriting and retelling. The desire to create a Ravana who no longer conforms to the stereotype of the villain coincide with the next phase in Indo-Lanka relations as well as the changing political conditions in the island with the war between the Sri Lankan state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
