Chandran Rutnam Interschool Short Film Competition 2022 

In a bid to gear up the Sri Lankan film industry with young blood, international filmmaker and entrepreneur Chandran Rutnam has joined hands with the Future Lanka Research and Development Foundation (FLRDF) to launch the Chandran Rutnam Interschool Short Film Competition for youth below 20 years of age. This attempt is to empower the next generation of filmmakers and attractive cash prizes await those who develop a good script and story. Special rewards and certificates will be given to the best cinematography, editing and acting. 

In his keynote speech at the event launch, award-winning Sri Lankan filmmaker Boodee Keerthisena advised the youngsters to take maximum use of this programme. “This is a good opportunity for the younger generation. Right now I’m doing a film using an iPhone – what I’m trying to say is that you can do a film using a phone as well. Therefore you don’t have to use big cameras anymore. There will be people to help you.”

“If you have a limited budget, go by bus and check on a location, engage with your friends and use the resources you already have. The location could be an abandoned house owned by a friend, you could hire a vehicle owned by another, and another member in the group could arrange a small snack while on the way. But the most important aspect of this project is your story or rather the message you want to give out to society. But don’t forget the fact that people like to listen to stories. It may start from ‘once upon a time’ or any other way. There are many ways in which you could develop the story. You should know how to cheat through the film, which means to show that you’re on the moon while filming everything on land. 
You need to play with your imagination. Don’t worry about locations or any big concepts. Everybody has a chance in this film competition. Cinema is a language; everything from the script, and cinematography to editing are being taken into account. If you can weave a good story the rest of the project will fall into place,” he added.

The Future Lanka Research and Development Foundation has been designed to identify the skills and passions of children thereby guiding them to pursue higher studies and step into their desired careers. 
“Youth unemployment stands at around 21% in Sri Lanka while in Ethiopia youth unemployment is at 2%,” opined FLRDF Director Dian Baduge.

“One of the reasons is that their soft skills haven’t been developed. What we mean by soft skills is their leadership, creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, negotiation, communication and other skills. Whether they are a well-rounded professional depends on this soft skills component. It is these skills that allow them to interact efficiently among a group. During our workshops with the youth, we realised that we needed something creative in order to develop these skills among students. This is when we came across this magical solution.

One of the ideal solutions to develop soft skills in the younger generation is filmmaking. Everything from emotional intelligence to sympathy, empathy and other moral values could be developed via filmmaking. As such filmmaking is a pool of soft skills and a tool to develop soft skills in children. Therefore we wanted to create a space where everybody can participate. When we took this proposal to Mr Rutnam he revolutionised it to a point where children who have the skill could get a Hollywood level training thereby giving them an opportunity to excel in the international arena.” “When I first started in the industry I was 17 years old and I had a dream,” recalled international filmmaker and entrepreneur Chandran Rutnam.

“I believe that all of you have a film inside you that you would like to make one day. For some it’s a fantasy and if you’re lucky you would go forward with it. I wrote my parents’ love story which was the script for ‘Adara Kathawa’. So I went up to my father and said that I want to make a film and that I wanted some money. He asked whether I’m crazy and asked me to go to school. Then I went to my uncles and they wanted to see the script but they never read it.

Those days we all shot on negatives and a film reel cost around Rs. 25000 which was a lot of money. Then I went to the States, came back and made a film. Therefore people, unfortunately, don’t give the credit to the film industry that it should have. It is one of the five most lucrative businesses in the world. In countries such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Vietnam it’s a big industry, but in Sri Lanka, it has failed. It has failed us and the youth in our country. Unfortunately, our people perceive the film industry in a very frivolous manner. 

They think it’s a joke. Those in the industry earn a living by it. Therefore this idea of under 20 students being shown the film industry is a great idea because it’s an industry that has many jobs. There are many departments and if you expose the youth to this industry they can pick one of those departments. Everything from production management to location management, wardrobe etc are important and highly paid jobs. Many want to be an actor or an actress but there’s more to the industry than just that. This should have been done a long time ago. We have to treat this industry with respect and give the opportunity for young people to decide,” he said in conclusion.

During the event, a few students shared their thoughts about the competition with the Daily Mirror Life. Here’s what they had to say;

Yashoda -  Devi Balika Vidyalaya “It was a new experience and it helped us think differently.  It’s an inspiration  to all of us.”

Ranuk - S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia “We are the future of this country. Future Sri Lanka and Mr Rutnam are taking great efforts to build our future. I believe this competition and initiative will be a resounding success.”

Tharusha - Holy Cross College “It was a well-planned event. I have plans to become a filmmaker in future and this is a good opportunity for all of us.”

Subudda - D.S Senanayake College “It was a splendid programme because we got many tips about how to do a short film and engage with our group for ideas. I plan to participate in this competition with my team.”

Divya - St. Peter’s College, Negombo branch “I’m planning to participate in this competition but still  we haven’t decided on the script.”

Pics by Pradeep  Dilrukshana