Anto Chittilappillys Netwon Cinema also recently produced Don Palatharas Malayalam-languageFamily, which premiered at this years Rotterdam film festival.
While the agitation has since stabilized, the country is still a long way from resolving its financial difficulties.
DEADLINE: Was the film inspired by Sri Lankas economic crisis?
ParadiseNewton Cinema, Madras Talkies
Why did you decide to tell a story about Indian tourists in Sri Lanka?
Then I met Newton Cinema and they agreed to finance and produce.
I kept asking myself what do I have to say about all this?
Prasanna Vithanage
How can I capture the essence of the moment with the characters in this story?
Ambitions and professional goals are interfering and creating a power imbalance.
Although they both have careers, the husband assumes that his career matters more.
DL: How involved was Mani Ratnam in the film?
PV:Ive grown up with his films and met him many times.
When I do post-production in Tamil Nadu, I always invite him for a screening of my film.
DL: How did you meet Newton Cinema and did they fully finance the film?
And yes they fully financed, for which Im very grateful.
So they took on a huge risk.
Whats interesting about this current crisis is that the citizen movement has risen up.
We are all living under austerity measures, so its very difficult to raise funds for films locally.
We dont have government funding and local businesses are suffering.
Our cinemas have reopened but right now were still releasing the films that were made before the crisis.
Theyre much more likely to wait for films to come to streaming platforms or television.
DL: Despite the challenges, are you still working on future projects?
But again, I want to analyse human relationships because Dostoevskys novel is also an intense story about love.
