‘A COMMON MAN’ producer offers help in digitalisation process
Seasoned filmmaker Chandran Rutnam’s latest movie ‘A Common Man’ was in the news again last week when it bagged the awards for the best film, best director and best actor (Ben Kingsley) at the recent Madrid International Film Festival.
The movie produced by Manohan Nanayakkara was also nominated in the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ category at the festival. Producer Manohan Nanayakkara who had been an ardent film buff since his schooldays at S. Thomas’ said his biggest dream was to someday make films and he was associating most filmloving people from his youth.
“I read a lot about movies and read works of famous film critics. Later we became neighbours with veteran filmmaker Tissa Abeysekara who also aroused manifold the interest I had in films,” said Manohan who has also made a name for himself in the finance, banking and hotel sectors.
“With my involvement in the film sector, I believe I have made a full circle and given my expertise in the finance related fields, I have proposed to the National Film Corporation a project offering to undertake work in connection with the digitalisation of our cinemas. I offer the process free of charge with the sole intention of getting our film industry on a viable footing. I did ‘A Common Man’ in the digital format. It opened in the LA on digital and it was purchased by foreign distrubutors Myriad Pictures of Hollywood in digital. My upcoming movie ‘Vaishnavee’ directed by Ms. Sumitra Peries is also made in digital. This is going to be the future. Cellolide is dying and the whole world is moving fast towards digitalisation. Very soon, we will be caught stranded if we don’t switch to digitalisation now. It will cut down production costs by huge margins, make the whole process hassle-free, make editing and dubbing so simple and the resultant feasibility factor will see the emergence of more digital cinemas. I am offering my services on e-digitalisation free of charge and the National Film Corporation has realised the worth of this project. This will also pave the way for the youth to come up with innovative creations, given the low cost involved,” he said.
“When I made such suggestions earlier, I had no proper stake to press my point since I was not involved in films. But today, as a film producer I am made a player and I am able to sit on the discussion table as a stakeholder. In a country with a popualtion of 20 million, 200 cinemas and an average of 20 films made a year we cannot go in for ridiculous and high budget projects,” said Manohan also announcing that ‘A Common Man’ would be released in Sri Lanka soon.