Chandran Rutnam

Chandran Rutnam
Chandran Rutnam
Born Sri Lanka
Nationality Sri Lankan
Occupation Film director, producer, screenwriter, entrepreneur
Known for Film making
Title President/CEO
of
Asian Film Locations Services(Pvt)Ltd.
&
Asian Aviation Centre(Pvt)Ltd.
Religion Christian
Children James, Daniel, Evelyn, Chanel & Danara
Website
Asian Film Locations Services(Pvt)Ltd., Asian Aviation Centre(Pvt)Ltd.

Chandran Rutnam is a well known film maker from Sri Lanka and was more than 38 years in Los Angeles. He is of mixed minority Tamil and majority Sinhalese ancestry. 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. He worked as the production supervisor in Sri Lanka for, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) amongst many other Hollywood movies.

He is the President & Chief Executive Officer of the Asian Film Location Services(Pvt)Ltd. in Sri Lanka which mostly hosts foreign films to be filmed in Sri Lanka.

He founded the once popular local airline company, Lionair and currently owns the Asian Aviation Centre(Pvt)Ltd. in Sri Lanka.

Contents

Biography

Ben Kingsley starring A Common Man directed by Chandran Rutnam
Chandran Rutnam with Steven Spielberg, in the Gala Dinner held on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, honoring Steven Spielberg.
Chandran Rutnam, a Finalist Award Winner, is seen with the award in the presence of Judith Rutnam (Third from Left), James Rutnam (Fourth from Left) and other distinquized personalities at the 2011 New York International Television and Film Awards which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada in conjunction with the NAB Show. In the Best Film category, five films were selected by the New York Festivals Grand Jury and out of over 150 films, from 36 countries, the Sri Lanka film, The Road from Elephant Pass, directed, produced and written by Chandran Rutnam, was a Finalist Award Winner, upon being judged by an International Panel of the world's best creative professionals.

Chandran Rutnam was born to a Sri Lankan Tamil father Dr. James T. 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 and attended the film school at the University of Southern California and the San Fernando Valley College of Law. 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 the Far East.[1][2][3]

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 wrote and directed the Sinhala films, Poronduwa (1993), Janelaya and The Road from Elephant Pass (2009) which won several awards.[1][2]

Other credits

Producer
Production Manager
Director
  • Poronduwa (1993)
  • The Road from Elephant Pass (2008)
Writer

See also

  • Evelyn Rutnam Institute for Inter-Cultural Studies

References

External links


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