A Common Man:

First SL-Hollywood production

by Roshan Samarakoon

Chandran Rutnam

A Common Man is an upcoming psychological thriller film by Sri Lankan film-maker Chandran Rutnam with Oscar Award winner Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross in the cast.

The story is adapted from a concept conceived while Chandran was watching the Hindi movie A Wednesday. However, Rutnam has developed into a highly suspenseful thriller.

The cast includes Ben Kingsley, Ben Cross, Patrick Rutnam, Mohamed Adamaly, Dushyanth Weeraman, Ashan Dias, Numaya Siriwardena and Jerome de Silva.

Crew

The crew of the film includes Manohan Nanayakkara (Producer), Chandran Rutnam(Adapted Screenplay and Direction), Chandana Jayasinghe ( Director of Photography), James Rutnam (Editor) and Ramesh Vinayakam (music).

A Common Man is a production of Asia Digital Entertainment which earlier produced the feature film, The Road From Elephant Pass, a Finalist Award winner at the 2011 New York International Television and Film Awards. The film is adapted for the screen and directed by Chandran Rutnam. A Common Man is produced by Manohan Nanayakkara, B.S. Radha Krishnan and Chandran Rutnam.

A Common Man, which is shot in Colombo, deals with a mysterious man (Kingsley) who had planted five bombs in the politically-scarred city. And the bombs are set to explode if demand for the release of four major terrorists is not immediately met. When he conveys his demands to the Deputy Inspector General of the Colombo Police Department (Cross), a confrontation ensues that sets off the exciting, non-stop action film.

The Academy Award winning Ben Kingsley’s (Gandhi) recently performed in such films as Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Other recent projects include Hugo, from director Martin Scorsese, with Sacha Baron Cohen and Chloe Grace Moretz, and The Dictator, which also stars Sacha Baron Cohen.Ben Cross (Chariots of Fire) recently co-starred with John Cusack in the independent film War, Inc. and opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Liotta in Hero Wanted. His other recent projects are Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams, and starring roles in the mini-series Ben Hur for the BBC, the mini-series Ice opposite Sam Neill and Lifetime’s William and Kate.

The film, among other things, brings to Sri Lankan film industry international cast including the actors in the stature of Sir Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross who have hailed the film script as perfect and with absolutely no need to change even a ward. Sir Ben Kingsley in an interview in the making of the film expressed his views on the Sri Lankan crew stating that it is highly professional and committed to the work. Significantly, Film Location has handled the entire shooting of the film.

Re-written and adaptation

The idea for the film A Common Man was germinated when veteran film maker Chandran Rutnam watched the movie A Wednesday on a DVD. It was a Hindi movie and Chandran Rutnam liked very much the concept in the plot and he thought that the narrative of the film should be re-written and adapted as it deserves the attention of a cosmopolitan audience.

Thinking that it should be shot in English, Chandran came up with an English script with skilfully crafted twists and turns which make A Common Man a film full of suspense and closely-knitted chain of events which qualifies it as a major thriller.

One of the salient characteristics of a thriller is that it should not only entertain the audience on mere scores of rapidly triggering off chain of events but also shedding light on complex characters and how circumstances would change otherwise good citizens into incarnated devils who would not hesitate to take law into their hands.

Chandran had presented the script to the producer Manohan Nanayakkara who readily approved the script and gave Chandran a virtually a free-hand in selecting the cast. Like many other scriptwriters, when he wrote the script for the movie, he had some persons in mind for its characters.

For instance, he thought of Sir Ben Kingsley for the lead role and visualised other persons for other characters. However, Chandran thought about the budget of the film and would it be affordable for a Sri Lankan producer to bring down Hollywood actors in the stature of Sir Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross.

The story is woven around two lead characters who act against each other on opposing sides. It should be stated that the selection of Ben Cross is a well-calculated measure given the fact that Ben’s role should be as strong as that of Sir Ben Kingsley’s and that a weak actor would rob the movie of its much-needed vitality.

Chandran Rutnam with the production crew

The film was shot in Dehiwala and Ratmalana Airport. Among the cast are James Scotch, actor of Sri Lankan origin who lives and training as an actor in Melbourne and Patrick Rutnam who studies acting in New York Drama School. Chandran Rutnam has effectively used Numaya Siriwardena, who hasn’t had much experience in acting to derive the naivety that Chandran needed for the character.

Post production of A Common Man was mainly done in Hollywood while a part of it was finished in India. The movie will be distributed by Marriott Pictures of Hollywood and the movie will expected be released in America in May.

Sri Lankan premier will also be held in May. Chandran Rutnam hopes to exploit the worldwide niche market for indigenous films with subtitles in international languages such as English. Such movies would not only entertain Sri Lankan moviegoers but also generate profits at international movie markets. The logistics of the movie will be handled by Film Location Services.

Although a film making is a costly venture, the digital technology has drastically reduced the cost of production encouraging young talents to prove their metal in filmmaking.

As a service and tapping potential talent pool among Sri Lankan youth, Film Location Services encourages young first-time filmmakers to make their debut film with Film Location Services.