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 who has been in Los Angeles for more than 38 years. He is of mixed minority Tamil and majority Sinhalese ancestry. Having started his movie career with Britain's David Lean in The Bridge on the River Kwai at the age of 16 and studied with American director George Lucas in film school, Rutnam 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.

Biography

Ben Kingsley in A Common Man directed by Chandran Rutnam

Chandran Rutnam with Steven Spielberg, in the Gala Dinner held on 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. 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 stand-by 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.

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 working 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.

Film career

• The movie, "Tarzan and the Ape Man" starring Bo Derek as Jane was shot at Udawatte Kelle, Kandy.

• He also took Bo and John Derek to beaches in Bentota to film "Ghosts Cant Do It". There is a carving on a stone in Bentota, which says "Great Scot Loves You" - a message from late John to Bo.

• Rutnam and his team brought the Geraldine Chaplin and Mother Teresa to Sri Lanka and built Calcutta in Colombo and a little bit of Oslo at a warehouse in Kelaniya.

• 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 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.

Other credits

Producer

• Dheewari (2006)
• The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
• Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor (1997)
• The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997)
• Bloodsport III (1997)
• Bloodsport 2 (1996)
• Ghosts Can't Do It (1990)
• Stein des Todes, Der (1987)
• Death Stone (1986)

Production Manager

• Beyond Rangoon (1995)
• The Iron Triangle (1989)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Director

• Poronduwa (1993)
• The Road from Elephant Pass (2008)

Writer

• Poronduwa (1993)

See also

• Evelyn Rutnam Institute for Inter-Cultural Studies

External links

• Chandran Rutnam at the Internet Movie Database
• 'Water' the Best Foreign Film at Hollywood
• Deepa Mehta's film - 'WATER'
• Film company sues Mahaweli Authority, NFC
• Alimankada –Behind the scenes
• A 'land like no other' for film locations
• Breaking the artificial barriers
• Water nominated for Academy Awards
• New York Festivals
• On horseback for peace and charity
• Chandran Rutnam Videos