Lankan cinema will rise because the talent is here; Deepa Mehta
Internationally famed Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta speaking at the screening of her latest film ‘Funny Boy’ based on Shyam Selvadurai’s multi-awarded book, praised the talents in Sri Lankan cinema and vowed that the Lankan cinema will rise because there is so much talent.
“There are beautiful films. The standards will rise because the talent is there. They have to be encouraged,” Deepa said adding that she was a big fan of Asoka Handagama. “I think he is brilliant filmmaker and a real power house. And it was one of your films that won the Caméra d’Or’ award at Cannes,” said Deepa referring Vimukthi Jayasundara’s debut film. Deepa’s debut film ‘Sam & Me’ too in 1991, won a Special Jury Mention in the Camera D’Or section at the Cannes Film Festival.
Overwhelmed by the support she received both from the cast and the crew in Sri Lanka Deepa said, “cinema indeed is a collaborative form of art and I am here because of some wonderful actors, and the talent in this country blooming away. And thank you Sri Lanka,”.
Shyam Selvadurai joining the discussion virtually from Canada
Famed for her internationally acclaimed films such as ‘Midnight’s Children’, elements trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005), Deepa was speaking at the launch of South Asia’s first and oldest Queer Film Festival, Abhimani Queer Film Festival 2022 in Colombo, organised by EQUAL GROUND, together with the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka. The festival was launched with the screening of ‘Funny Boy’ made based on Shyam Selvadurai’s best-selling novel of the same name and published in 1994.
Moderated by EQUAL GROUND’s Executive Director, Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, the film screening was followed by a panel discussion with Deepa, Nimmi Harasgama and Brandon Ingram representing the cast and the writer Shyam Selvadurai who virtually joined the event held at the Canadian High Commission Old Chancellory in Colombo.
“There is something about Sri Lanka that feels very familiar to me. What is special about the making of Funny Boy is that, even though I had been to Sri Lanka previously to create films, this was the first time we used Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka, and not as a substitute,” Deepa who previously shot ‘Water’ and ‘Midnight’s Children’ her said.
However shooting of ‘Funny Boy’ which was set in the backdrop of shameful 1983 ethnic violence and revolving around a theme on homosexuality which is a criminal offence in Sri Lanka, was not as fascinating as it was expected. Deepa, her husband and producer David Hamilton and even the Canadian High Commissioner had to face many odds.
The filmmaker revealed that a year and half was spent with the producer and Canadian High Commissioner, David McKinnon before Funny boy was filmed here.
“David went from one person to another. He did not give up and where ever we went the answer was this film is anti Sinhala and it should never get done. But he found a window with Gopi, producer of Film Team,” Deepa said.
Canadian High Commissioner, David McKinnon
Speaking at the launch, High Commissioner David McKinnon who was a witness to what Deepa and the team went through here said how proud he was that ‘Funny Boy’ was finally made in Sri Lanka.
“This is a story 30 years in the making since Shyam wrote ‘Funny Boy’ but it also three years in the making since Deepa, her producer David and I discussed about the challenges that were being taking place in getting the film made,” High Commissioner said.
“I think it is a beautiful film and I can say how happy I am personally, proud as a Canadian that this Sri Lankan Canadian story is being told, the story of love and war, it is a universal story in many ways. But it is a very much a story of Sri Lanka and also ultimately a story of Canada too,” he stated.
Deepa Mehta
Migrated to Canada in 1984, Sri Lankan author Shyam Selvadurai disclosed how several people including an Oscar winning script writer wanted to write a screenplay from his maiden book which won the W.H. Smith/ Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award in the United States. But he finally decided to write it by himself and Deepa welcomed it wholeheartedly.
“It spoke to me on many levels. There was such tenderness among such violence – and I fell in love with that. It is a timeless story,” Deepa described her feelings when she read the novel for the first time.
Speaking virtually Selvadurai said “It was started off with the impulse of writing with an idea that some day in a far future a young queer person in Sri Lanka would get a chance to read a book I have written and see themselves reflected in the way that I never saw when I grew up”.
Nimmi Harasgama
“And it could not be separated from the political situation of the time and then it just grew and it just miraculously happened,” he added.
Asked whether the movie did justice to his novel, Selvadurai said, “It captures what I never expected to capture, the world I lived in, the Colombo 7. I never expected to have captured that. When I first saw it, it was a magical experience.
Playing the role of a protective mother who ideologically defends her race, Nimmi Harasgama coming from Sinhala-Tamil background has personal connection to the character she played.
Internationally renowned actress said that she looked to her mother when she played her role.
“I looked to my mum because we were here during 1983 riots and I watched her as a child and her experience of this, of riots and of our family and of our Tamil side being affected by it,” Nimmi said with tears.
“Hiding in our house and my father pretending he owned the house we rented out because it was a Tamil lady who actually owned it. I looked to my mum at all levels because she is a Colombo 7 Tamil. Not that it is a great thing but I looked to her in every aspect of this role,”.
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