Right: Donald Karunarathne is precariously fastened to a jeep with coir ropes while shooting a film. Left: He is receiving a national award from late president J.R. Jayewardene
CONCLUDING PART
One perfect shot is all what cinematographers are obsessed with, belittling many risks involved in their occupation. Cameraman Donald Karunarathne is no stranger to death-defying incidents during his 50-year film career in Sri Lanka and abroad.
Talking to newstrails.com from Los Angeles, where he is based now, the celebrated cinematographer said: “The profession was more dangerous during my time than now. By looking back, I shudder to think how I escaped brushes with death. Was it my luck, hand of god or my devil-may-care attitude during my young and reckless days?”
His first accident was when he was working as an assistant to Mike Wilson who directed the first Sinhala colour film Ranmuthuduva. One evening he was walking on a ramp constructed about 30 feet above the ground for the purpose of shooting a scene. “It was dark, and I climbed on to the ramp to repair a light. I forgot that the ramp at one end was wide open with no safety barrier. It was too late to turn back as I walked to the end of the ramp and all I remember was how was falling. I had nothing to hold on to, and I felt that I was suspended in the air. As I was shouting for help, I realized that my trouser belt had got entangled with a steel rod sticking out of the ramp, saving my life.”
The second accident was when he was shooting Siripala and Ranmenika directed by Amarnath Jayatilleke.
The film had a stunt scene featuring Ravindra Randeniya and Robin Fernando. The actors were doing their own stunts in a scene when they were escaping in a train after fleeing from jail.
“The scene was being shot in Anuradhpura. A small stand was fixed to the train for me to sit with the camera to shoot the scene while the train moving at 45 mph. We had a trial run to test the safety during a run of about one hours and everything seemed alright,” the cameraman said.
Ravindra and Robin were to hide from the police who were looking for them in the train. They were to climb down and hide beneath moving train. “We did not have walkie talkies, and we had communicated with the crew shouting loud to each other. Few minutes after the shooting began, I felt the carriage where I was with the camera loosening and I knew I was going to run over by the train if I fell down. Only option open for me was to jump off the breaking carriage. I dived, hugging my camera and rolled on the ground to break the fall and avoid serious injuries. Probably the physical fitness of my youth may have saved me from serious injuries. It was a miracle how I survived the jump off a train travelling at 45 mph!”
He faced another frightening experience while shooting Vasantha Obeysekera’s Dadayama (The Hunt).
“The scene where Ravindra Randeniya drives his car fast with the intention of running over the heroine (Swarna Mallawarachchi) seems graphic on screen and that was another death-defying incident I had to face for the sake of reality. Ravindra did his own stunts in the film and I was with the camera when he swerved the car violently. I was about a few inches from the car when it skidded and braked just a few millimetres from me. I stood where I was, without moving as I wanted to capture the scene the best way possible,” says Donald adding that those days the cinematographers lacked protective devices.
In the same film there was another scene in which Swarna smashed the windshield of the car with a branch as Ravindra was driving fast towards her. “I was shooting the scene when Swarna hit the windscreen with the branch breaking it to pieces. I was bathed in glass splinters and dust and the camera got damaged. We borrowed it from director Lester James Peiris. It was the only 20 mm wide angel lens in the country which Lester used to film his debut feature film Rekhawa. Lester may have been angry but didn’t say anything and only asked us to send it to Germany for repairs!”
Another narrow escape was when he was shooting Sithadevi, a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka.
The film featured a violent boat race between Gamini Fonseka and Ravindra Randeniya. Donald was in the front of a boat carrying the camera, secured to the with a rope. “The boat was travelling at a speed of about 70 to 80 miles and all of a sudden it stopped as something got stuck in the propeller. I was thrown off into the sea which was about 60 feed deep in that area. I never let go of the camera as I started sinking but soon an extra boat which was sailing for our protection fished me out of the water.”
Director Manik Sandarasagara who was in the boat had given a glass whiskey to calm Donald’s nervous. “I was more concerned about the film-roll as I knew it was a perfect shot. I took it out, and washed the camera in fresh water. Fortunately, there was no serious damage to the camera or the film roll.”
Donald escaped with a broken hand during a road accident on his way to Jaffna to shoot Dharmasena Pathiraja’s Tamil film Ponmani. “It was just after dawn and we may have been about fifty miles off Jaffna. We were passing an area where the highway and the rail track ran parallel and suddenly our car veered off the road speeding towards the track. It came to a stop after hitting an embankment. If there was no barrier the car would have got stuck on the busy rail track. Everybody in the car was hurt. I broke my hand. W. Jayasiri too was hurt. My wife, my daughter and Jayasiri’s wife Sunila Abeyeskera rushed to see us in Jaffna hospital after the news of the accident reached Colombo.”
Donald’s other near-death experience was while he was shooting for Sanda directed by Stanley Perera. “We stopped on the way from shooting to have a bath in a lake. The water looked shallow, and I walked a little distance away from the beach when suddenly there was a sudden drop. I tried to swim back but felt I was sinking fast. Luckily, Ravindra Randeniya who saw me disappear in the water swam to me and pulled me out of my hair.”
With a career spanning 50 years and still engaged in Sinhala film industry, Donald says those days the industry lacked insurance facilities for artistes or the crew.
“Many technicians and actors get hurt all over the world. In the west they are covered with insurance but producers in a country like Sri Lanka cannot go to such lengths as they operate on tight budgets. On the other hand there were no safety equipment and remote control devices for shooting during my time,” Donald says adding that some producers paid him bonuses to compensate for such unforeseen events.
He stresses that physical fitness is the most important asset of a cinematographer and thinks that his proficiency in dancing and martial arts which he mastered while studying at Gurukula Vidayalaya in Kelaniya obviously came in handy to survive those death-defying incidents. Somasiri Munasinghe
