‘Sri Lanka is a natural film set’ said renowned Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg when he came to Sri Lanka years ago to shoot sequences of his Indian Jones trilogy, ‘The Temple of Doom’. This was proved when a number of Academy Awarded movies like ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’, ‘Indiana Jones and ‘Water’ featured the beautiful locations of Sri Lanka.
The latest of these is the ‘Covert Affairs’ hit series in the USA and Europe starring Eion Bailey and directed by Allan Krocker and produced by Doug Liman. A large number of Sri Lankan cinema artistes led by well-known filmmaker and owner of the Film Location Services, Chandran Rutnam are featured.
Fifty percent of the film produced by Universal Studios of Hollywood, California is shot in on various locations in and around Colombo and other parts of the country.
“This series is shot in various countries in the world, but has a significant attachment to Sri Lanka, as the story unfolds the hero and the heroine, meet in Sri Lanka, where the romance begins,” said Chandran Rutnam who is also the Line Producer of the film.
Another unique relationship that the film carries is that Sri Lankan locations are used in their true forms and not as any other foreign locations like India or another East Asian country.
The film which concluded all its shooting included exciting chase scenes in the Pettah and Sea Street and then through a ravine in Kottawa, where a Defender goes crashing down over a cliff.
‘All the stunts were handled by well known Stunt Director, Teddy Widyalankara and his team who also handled the stunt doubles on the roof of the Lanka Hospital and Dehiwela, where an action scene was shot air to air with two Bell 212 Sri Lanka Air Force Helicopters, flown by pilots Sumudu and Rienzie, who did a splendid job,’ Rutnam said.
In addition to Colombo, shootings were done in the locations around Kandy during the Perahera and waterfalls around Nuwara Eliya. ‘Senaka Navaratne, Sri Lanka’s number one Production Designer, who designed the film “ Water” and other international US productions, handled the production design, along with Art Director, Sunil Wijeratne,’ Mr. Rutnam added.
D B Warnasiri, the most experienced Assistant Director of international films, done in Sri Lanka, was part of Chandran Rutnam’s team at Film Location Services Limited.
Krishantha Gunasekera was the Production Manager who also handled one of the cameras in the helicopter and Chandimal Kodituwakku was the Location Manager.
‘Covert Affair’ producer Doug Liman who directed “Bourne Identity ” along with Sean Ryerson worked with Chandran Rutnam on the film “Beyond Rangoon ” shot in Malaysia which also was handled by Film Location Services.
Elan and Rajeev Dassani handled the Special Effects, along with Anna Schwaber. ‘We are looking forward to do further episodes of this series in Sri Lanka, using numerous local artistes and technicians, opening the door once again for Hollywood films to be shot in our beautiful island,’ Rutnam said. |
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