‘Doing things that cannot be done’

Sri Lankan Suran Goonatilake, whose outstanding achievements in numerous fields earned him an OBE, takes on the British film industry with a successful avant-garde romantic comedy, Scenes of a Sexual Nature

If there is such a thing as a genetic lottery, Sri Lankan born Suran Goonatilake, now resident in London is definitely a jackpot winner. Everything he touches seems to turn to gold.

The son of scholars and anthropologists Dr. Susantha Goonatilake and Hema Goonatilake, that Suran would excel academically is almost a given. But his astronomical successes in fields as diverse as computer science, photography, music and film are due solely to his razor-sharp business acumen and an indefatigable belief that ‘nothing is impossible’.

At just 37 years, Suran collects awards and accolades as effortlessly as some people collect books or stamps. For his ‘outstanding achievements right across the community’, Suran was one of the youngest recipients of the distinguished Order of the British Empire (OBE) at the Queen’s Birthday Honours this year.

A visiting Professor at the University of Arts, London, Suran is also hailed as a distinguished computer scientist and an international authority on the application of intelligent systems in business. With a personal fortune estimated at $338 million, he has also had a firm place in the Sunday Times (London) Rich List for the last three years.

Suran’s latest venture is a cheekily titled avant-garde romantic comedy, Scenes of a Sexual Nature. The film which he produced is in his own words, ‘edgy-London romantic comedy feature film’. It explores sexual politics and centres around ‘seven different relationships, one afternoon, on Hampstead Heath’, and boasts a stellar cast including Ewan McGregor, Catherine Tate, Sophie Okonedo and Tom Hardy.

Scenes of a Sexual Nature which opened early this month at 35 cinemas across the UK and Ireland is enjoying critical acclaim from the British film industry as ‘probably the best British romantic comedy of the year’, and incredibly its box office average beat even the much hyped studio films Sixty Six and Little Children.

Meanwhile Suran took some time off to explain to The Sunday Times via e-mail as to how exactly a Professor of Computer Science came to produce a critically acclaimed sensuous romantic comedy.

When BAFTA nominated drama director Ed Blum, whom Suran had met earlier through another project contacted him about Scenes of a Sexual Nature he was immediately interested. “I loved the script and the details of the conversations, about little things in relationships – in a sense it was very ‘Seinfeld’ like, which I am a huge fan of. But what really clinched the deal for me was its unbelievably ambitious and high-risk nature, not least of which was the miniscule $500,000 budget. I have always thrived on projects ‘that cannot be done’,” says Suran of his immediate reaction to the offer. The timing was also perfect as Suran had just sold his first company and wanted to get involved in a new project.

The first step being to attract the A-list cast Ed had in mind, Ed pitched his script to Emma Style, one of London’s best casting agents. Emma enthusiastically arranged the casting so that each actor was needed for a maximum of two to three days, which suited busy actors like Ewan McGregor and Catherine Tate just fine.

Having produced the film the next battle was to distribute it. Not being happy with any of the distribution offers coming in, the intrepid duo on Suran’s urging, took on the task of self-distributing the film. The bold and unconventional move paid off with Screen International, a respected industry magazine calling it the ‘most successful self-distributed film to be released in the UK’, and film industry gurus hailing it as a new model of how films can be made and distributed.

As an innovative marketing tool, because one of the stories of the film is a blind date, the distribution team organised the World’s Largest Blind Date at London’s Leicester Square, on opening night. Over 600 people turned up for the event, making it a contender for the Guinness Book of Records, as the current world record for the largest blind date is 536 people.

The film sold out all its screenings at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and according to the Hollywood Reporter was ‘one of the hottest tickets at Cannes’. It has already been snapped up by Sony Pictures for UK DVD rights and has also sold to several countries including Australia, New Zealand and Russia.

As to what international audiences can expect from Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Suran promises a film which people will talk about for days after they see it. “It’s funny, touching and emotional, and appeals to anyone between the ages of 20 -60,” he says.

An old boy of Royal College, Suran left Sri Lanka for England at the age of 18. As a PhD student at the University College of London, Suran together with three other students founded Searchspace, an enterprise software company, which monitors financial transactions and combats money laundering. Having grown Searchspace to a company that with its anti-money-laundering software today monitors over 400 million bank accounts for leading financial institutions like the London Stock Exchange and over half of the world’s largest banks including the Bank of New York, Wells Fargo and Barclays, Suran sold the company last year to Warbug Pincus, one of the world’s largest buy-out funds.

He is also the Chairman of Bodymetrics, a company pioneering virtual fashion technologies. With this technology which is available at Selfridges and Harrods and the world famous Le Bon Marche in Paris, customers can get their body scanned and order custom-made designer clothes.

Once scanned, customers can ‘virtually see themselves’ wearing clothes available in the store or on the web without actually trying them on, explains Suran.

In addition to all this, Suran still manages to find time to pursue his other interests like dance photography. And in typical Suran style, his photography exhibitions have also drawn rave reviews from enthusiasts.One can only wonder what lies ahead for him.