Veteran film producer passes away

Asoka Perera, a veteran film producer and Managing Director of Film Location Services(Pvt) Ltd from its inception passed away on June 6. He was a leading film personality and an international production manager.

Asoka was a former student of Ananda College and the University of Birmingham. Returning to Sri Lanka, he ran his family-owned glass factory for a while before he stepped into the world of films.

Asoka has had a distinguished film career having managed/supervised and produced films in India, Malaysia, Borneo and Thailand. He was in great demand by Hollywood producers and directors when shooting their productions in Asia.

The academy Award winning film "Indochine", the biggest grossing film, Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", "Jungle Book", "Mother Teresa" and the recent film "Water" were some of the films that he was involved in.

In Sri Lanka he, along with his partner Chandran Rutnam produced "Theertha Yathra" which won the Presidential "Best Picture" award in 1999 and the highly acclaimed "Wekanda Walauwa" which was honoured at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.