Sri Lankan folklore remembers Ritigala Jayasena as a fearless warrior whose story ended in a legendary duel — and began again as Mahasona, the great demon of the graveyard. For centuries his name has been spoken in village ritual, in whispered warnings, and in the drumbeat of the exorcist.
In Ritigala Jayasena and the Hidden City, writer-director Jayantha Chandrasiri brings that legend into the present day. Ancient Sri Lankan folklore and spiritual strength collide with a modern mystery that stretches from Sri Lanka to London and Canterbury. Mahasona, played by Hemal Ranasinghe, must protect his son and his son's girlfriend from the cartels, and doing so breaks his ancient agreement with Lucifer.
Filmed across Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom with an international cast of Sri Lankan, English, Polish and Bulgarian actors, the film is an action-fantasy drama designed to take Sinhala cinema onto the global stage.
Mahasona wants to send a message to his son in London. To do it, he must ask permission from Lucifer and his council of demons.
In London, the son and his girlfriend are drawn into danger from the cartels. Mahasona steps in to protect them.
By defending his son, Mahasona breaks his agreement with Lucifer. Lucifer sends Spring-heeled Jack to bring Mahasona back under his control.
In Canterbury the conflict becomes a spiritual war, with love and ancient wisdom standing against the forces of evil.
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The mist-wrapped peaks of Ritigala, with stone ruins and old monastic paths. Here the warrior Jayasena faces the giant Gotaimbara, and becomes Mahasona.
A son in London, his girlfriend and the cartels who hunt them. Mahasona walks the modern city to protect his own, shot on location in England with a British, Polish and Bulgarian cast.
Mahasona asks Lucifer and his council for leave to reach his son in London, then breaks their agreement to protect him. Spring-heeled Jack is sent to bring him back under control, and the demons of European lore gather for the battle in Canterbury.
Before he was Mahasona — මහසෝන, "the great demon of the graveyard" — he was a man. Scroll through the legend.
Folk tradition tells of Jayasena, a warrior of immense strength from the village of Ritigala in the ancient Rajarata. Tales of his power spread across the kingdom — and with them, his pride.
In the era of King Dutugemunu, Jayasena challenged Gotaimbara — one of the king's ten legendary giant warriors, the Dasa Maha Yodhayo. The duel would become one of the most retold contests in Sinhala folklore.
The legend says Gotaimbara's blow was so powerful that it struck Jayasena's head from his body. The head, the stories add, was never found.
In the most common telling, a divine power restored Jayasena to life by placing the head of a bear upon his body. He did not return as a man. He returned as a demon who roamed the cemeteries.
Known as Maha Sona or Maha Sohona, he became one of the most feared yakku of Sinhala belief — invoked and appeased through traditional healing rituals such as the Mahasona Samayama, with its masks, drums and fire.
The legend survives in many regional versions. This telling follows the most widely known account from Sinhala folklore and ritual tradition.
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From the hidden kingdoms of Sathara Denek Senpathiyo to the royal epic Maharaja Gemunu, Chandrasiri has spent decades bringing forgotten chapters of Lankan heritage back to the screen.
With Akala Sandya — remembered as the first Sri Lankan teledrama to explore time travel — and the demon-haunted Gharasarapa, he has long blended magic, myth and reality.
The Mahasona legend is set in the age of King Dutugemunu — the same era Chandrasiri explored in Maharaja Gemunu (2015). Ritigala Jayasena returns to that world from the other side of the battlefield.
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Kala Keerthi · Writer · Director
Born in Colombo in 1959, Kala Keerthi Jayantha Chandrasiri is one of Sri Lanka's most distinctive storytellers — a journalist, screenwriter, television director and filmmaker. He began as a stage actor in 1978, later served as executive editor of the Divaina newspaper, and became a defining voice of Sinhala teledrama in the 1990s.
His television serials Dandubasnamanaya and Akala Sandya are counted among the most iconic in Sri Lankan TV history. His feature debut, Agnidahaya (2002), won him the Presidential Award for Best Director, and he went on to make Guerrilla Marketing, Samanala Sandhawaniya, Maharaja Gemunu, Gharasarapa, Midunu Vishwaya and Devi Kusumasana.
Myth, history and the hidden currents of society — the threads that run through four decades of his work, and through Ritigala Jayasena.
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