Chandran Rutnam

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Chandrn Rutnam

Born Chandran Rutnam
Sri Lanka
Nationality Sri Lankan
Known for Film maker

Chandran Rutnam is a well known film maker and director from Sri Lanka. He is of mixed minority Tamil and majority Sinhalese ancestry. He is also a businessman, the Chairman and founder of the local airline company, Lionair. He worked as the production supervisor in Sri Lanka for, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) amongst many other Hollywood movies. He also runs the Film Location Services Lanka Limited in Sri Lanka which mostly hosts foreign films to be filmed in Sri Lanka. Having started his movie career with Britain's Sir David Lean in The Bridge on the River Kwai at sixteen, and having studied with American director George Lucas in film school in the USA, Rutnam has brought numerous Hollywood movies to Sri Lanka.

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[edit] Biography

Chandran Rutnam was born to a Sri Lankan Tamil father Dr. James Rutnam and a Sinhala mother Evelyn Wijeratne, who gave him all his yearning for freedom and adventure. Chandran Rutnam was 16-year-old school boy when David Lean arrived in Sri Lanka to shoot his Second World War epic, "The Bridge on The River Kwai". The film crew hired a house that belonged to his parents for the shooting, and Rutnam hung out at the sets volunteering odd jobs until finally, he got hired as a standby props assistant and gofer. His big moment, Rutnam recalls, came when it was time to shoot the blowing up of the bridge — the film's finale — on location at the scenic Kitulgala river in central Sri Lanka. The crew had laid out only a couple of yards of rail track on either side of the bridge, not enough to show an approaching train. Rutnam's job was to run through a stretch of the jungle on one side working up smoke with a pair of smoke bellows. Of course, those who saw the film only saw the smoke, synchronized with the chugging sounds of a rapidly approaching train. [1][2]

Due to this exposure, to the consternation of his parents, he dropped out of school and went to London to pursue his dream of a career in films. He later moved to the United States, where he went a film school in Los Angeles, while doing jobs in Hollywood studios. Rutnam's break in selling Sri Lankan locations to international film-makers came when he managed to convince John Derek, director of "Tarzan the Apeman", to shoot the film starring his wife Bo Derek, in Sri Lanka rather than Africa. Steven Spielberg refers to Rutnam as "my most valued friend in South Asia." Spielberg credits Mr Rutnam with his marriage to Kate Capshaw as he fell in love with his wife Kate Capshaw during the filming of Indiana Jones in Sri Lanka.[1][2][3]

[edit] Film career

  • He also took Bo and John Derek to beaches in Bentota beaches to film "Ghosts Cant Do It". Even today there is a carving on a stone in Bentota, which says "Great Scot Loves You" - a message from late John to Bo.
  • Rutnam also brought to life a beautiful love story between a Tamil boy and a Sinhalese girl in Adara Kathawa (Love Story in Sinhalese) based on the real life story of his parents. This was prior to the commencement of the current Sri Lankan civil war in 1983.
  • He also write and directed the Sinhala film, Poronduwa (1993) (The Promise in Sinhalese).
  • He is currently making a Sinhala film called 'The Road from Elephant Pass', which will start from early January. [1][2]

[edit] Other credits

Producer
Production Manager
Director
  • Poronduwa (1993)
Writer

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Dream locales in Lanka (html). Nirupama Subramaniam. Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
  2. ^ a b c d Moving movie man dreams on (html). Bandula Jayasekara. Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
  3. ^ Hollywood gets Tsunami plea (html). BBC. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.