EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SOMASIRI MUNASINGHE
“Sri Lanka is the best film studio nature has created, almost a superfluous wonder up to a certain point,” says one of the island’s acclaimed art directors who is internationally-known for his work with Hollywood and foreign film directors.
“The beautiful Indian Ocean’s 25,000-square-mile island, roughly the size of Tasmania, is a natural wonder in itself with a variety of climates, flora and fauna and the only thing it does not have is natural snow,” says Athula Sulthanagoda who is here on a visit in connection with the Toronto International Film Festival.
“There is arid desert-like climate and landscapes in the northern regions and the country is encircled with beautiful sea-washed sandy beaches. Southern part of the country is temperate and the hilly central part is cold while Nuwara Eliya with its British-style mansions and rolling landscapes are most often compared to Scotland and if you need to shoot in a rain forest there is the pristine jungles of Sinharaja towards the southern part and several wild life sanctuaries crowded with elephants, leopards, snakes and other creatures, and a small island where wild horses roam freely,” says Athula who has worked with many prestigious film makers of the west.
Many foreign films are also shot in India but film crews have to travel long distances at greater costs if they want to shoot in different climatic conditions. Sri Lanka, like many other Asian countries, has well-preserved ruins of a culture going back to thousands of years, mansions and buildings built by British, Dutch and Portuguese rulers, ancient temples, mosques, kovils and churches and also most modern structures like sky scrapers and star-class hotels.
Athula who began his prolific career in 1984 has played many roles like art director, set dresser, props master with a track record of working for 23 Hollywood and other foreign films and 10 Sri Lankan productions, in addition to dozens of film and TV ad projects.
Internationally-known films he has worked are Beyond Rangoon, Mountbatten The Last Viceroy, The Iron Triangle, Jungle Book II, Mother Teresa, A Dangerous Life, Ordinary Magic, Water, Indochine (French), Paradise Road, Water and Midnight Children. Most of these films have been partly or completely shot in Sri Lanka.
Recently, he launched his own film producing company to capitalize on the high demand from Hollywood directors to make films in Asia. “After working in the film industry for 34 years under other people I launched my own company named Prime Asia Films a few years ago to lure foreign film makers to Sri Lanka and other Asian countries,” he says.
His company has just finished House of my Fathers, with Athula working as its production manager and line producer. The movie, directed by British-based Subha Sivakumaran is in its post-production phase.
“Tiff is a really good place to meet other aspiring film makers and make contacts. I have met several directors from many countries and leant a lot from them,” he says adding that soon he is planning to make a European tour to meet his prospective clients to persuade them to make films in Asia.
Talking about emerging new film-making technology he says, art direction (productions design) is a dying craft. “Today Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is developing fast with the ability to shoot any film anywhere in the world with the ability to create any set, and it is only a matter of time that humans will be replaced by pixels and digits”.
A film-set in Solar Eclipse Depth of Darkness, was created with tooth picks and rigifoam to simulate the Mumbai Railway Station in a Colombo studio with the help of CGI. “The set was made in Dubai and imported to Sri Lanka where the film was shot.” Athula worked as the Consultant of the Art Department while Bimal Dushmantha functioned as the Sri Lankan Art Director.
The film is a period movie directed by Karim Traidia dealing with the subject of a conspiracy theory on true events in India, that led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. It will be released in the US next April.
Athula had his education at Colombo Thurston College, studying science with no intention in pursuing a film career despite the fact he was an excellent painter. He got through the A-Levels and was studying architecture when an accidental meeting with a well-known film art director, Errol Kelley, led him to a career in films.
At the beginning, Athula worked for a Sri Lankan company, Film Locations Services owned by Chandran Rutnam, who lured some of the biggest Hollywood film makers like Stephen Spielberg to shoot their movies in Sri Lanka.
“When I began there were no proper courses to study art direction in Sri Lanka but I was very lucky to have worked with some of the world’s best film makers and art directors enabling me to familiarize with many aspects of movie making, not taught in traditional film schools” says Athula. He mentions two films which helped him to master the sophisticated techniques in the field, Beyond Rangoon and Midnight Children.
In Beyond Rangoon he worked as Set Dresser in Second Unit. The movie which was filmed in Malaysia was directed by John Boorman in which Patricia Arquette played the lead role. Boorman also directed films like Deliverance, Exorcist II, Hell in the Pacific and Tailor of Panama.
Athula has gained wide experience working under film professionals who have even won Academy Awards such as British Costume Designer Jenny Beavan
Athula was given a one-week workshop before working for Mountbatten the Last Viceroy. He also worked with director Eddie Fowlie in Beyond Rangoon. He is known for films like Lawrence of Arabia, Passage to India and Bridge on the River Kwai. He passed away this year.
Another professional who helped him to enrich his experience is British costume designer Jenny Beavan who won two Academy awards for her costumes in Room With A View and Mad Max: Fury Road and nominated for eight times. Athula worked with her in one of her very early projects, Mountbatten The Last Viceroy, and still keeps in touch with her.
He says working with very talented Canadian director Deepa Mehta as Assistant Art Director in her Midnight Children provided him a platform to gain valuable experience.
Athula is happy to be part of the development of Sinhala cinema as well by taking part in prestigious productions, instrumental in bringing international fame to Sri Lanka’s tiny film industry. His impressive track record of working as the art director and costume designer include some Sinhala classics like Anantha Raththriya, Aswesuma, Boradiya Pokuna, Sancranti, Aksharaya, Sam’s Story. He won the national award for Best Art Director for Indrakeelaya in 1997 and was nominated for Anjalika in 2005.
Film shooting has also given him an opportunity to travel round the world where he meets people from different cultures. His profession is not without its dangers when working in foreign countries and Athula had a spooky experience in Malaysia while filming Beyond Rangoon.
The film was shot in a Papan House, an old mansion which was said to be haunted. The owner reluctantly agreed for the film crew to shoot a scene on its second floor. Within a few days a painter who worked close to the house on a set said he had seen a huge snake. The incident was ignored and shooting continued until a few days later Athula was carrying a ‘parang’ sword which was like a machete required for a scene.
When he was passing a banana plant he touched a leaf and felt something like a snake’s slithery body. All of a sudden he fainted and fell down to a depth of 20 feet. He was rushed to hospital and the owner of the house was doubtful whether Athula would ever recover as many who had the same kind of weird experience had died instantly. “I was unconscious for 12 hours in the hospital and had to rest for 2 weeks in a hotel. I still suffer from a back ache due to a slip disc sustained in that spooky accidient,” he said.
While shooting a television documentary, Reflection of Eden about the life of Professor Galdikas, Lithuanian-Canadian anthropologist and authority on orangutans, in Indonesian jungles the crew could not do much due to scary wild fires which enveloped the jungle. Even after waiting two months, air did not clear and the project had to be called off. It was completed when the situation became normal.
Athula says one of his most exhilarating experiences was working with orangutans in the Indonesian rain forests. The beasts were smart, endearing animals, but excellent thieves. “They created lot of troubles for the crew. About hundred of them gathered every morning curious to see what we were up to. They are also very strong and we were instructed not to pull our hands and panic if they touched us. They have the strength to break a human hand instantly and we waited patiently till they examined us and diverted their attention to do some other mischief. They stole our food, clothes, damaged our living quarters, opened with their bare hands nailed boxes where we hid our valuables, one stole a video camera and climbed a tree and started throwing its broken pieces at us. They stole our hats and went up the trees and wore them.”
He says his current sojourn in Toronto gave him a chance to have talks about his next project which will be a Canadian film. It will be directed by Priyankara Vitanachchi who made the award-winning Sam’s Story. Based on the novel, Walakulu Bemma (Wall of Clouds) written by acclaimed writer Chandrarathne Bandara, the movie. will be shot both in Sri Lanka and Canada. The film will be produced by Sri Lankan-Canadian entrepreneur Ruwan Jayakody. – © newstrails.com
