President’s inside story

“Picture This” produces unique film to commemorate second swearing-in  

 ‘A Rebel With A Cause’, a short film on the President, written and directed by renowned film director King Ratnam, of ‘Picture This’, was aired on national television on 19 November, to commemorate the second swearing in of the President.

“This film on the President was commissioned by Lakshmi Sangakkara (Attorney-at Law) a former batchmate of President Rajapaksa and one of the current members of Board of Directors of the People’s Bank” said Ratnam. “The video had a private viewing on 9 September at the annual Law College Batch of 74’ get-together at which the President was present and subsequently the decision was made to televise the film on the day of the President’s second swearing in”.

Ratnam acknowledged the contribution made by Minister Chamal Rajapakse who narrated stories of a young President to the crew of ‘Picture This’ during a meeting held at the Speaker’s House. “A Rebel With A Cause was filmed at ‘Madamullana’ over a period of 3 days.

An industry veteran with vast experience, King Ratnam, the Creative Director of ‘Picture This’ is known amongst the filming fraternity as the “go-to” guy for profiling. He has produced several profiles for notable dignitaries, as well as corporates and it is his ambition to take profiling to every home and bring out the story that is inside every household. “I believe every individual has a story to tell, whether it be a multinational magnate or your average executive or housewife” says Ratnam.

Having worked at Young Asia Television and trained overseas, Ratnam set up ‘Picture This’ in 1999, together with Ganesh Devanaigam and Subramanium Eassuwaren, two brothers hailing from the entrepreneurial Easwaran family where they are both directors of the family business. Ganesh, is the Chairman of ‘Picture This,’ while Subramanium is the Administrative Director.  

Ratnam said that ‘Picture This’ was the only AV company in Sri Lanka specializing in electronic profiles of individuals. He said it was his ambition to go international and profile the world’s dignitaries.

As to what differentiates them from other AV companies, Ratnam said that ‘attention to detail’ was their watchword. “We even recreate the past, not just by using old footage, but by sourcing actors who resemble the characters we profile and using visual effects and camera techniques that belong to the era we are portraying.

We research our characters thoroughly so that we are able to portray them in their true spirit”. Ratnam said that in the case of the President, they focused on a statement made where he referred to himself as ‘A Rebel With A Cause’. “Our challenge was to identify the President’s rebellious qualities and bring them out powerfully visually in order to capture the essence of the man”.

With regards to plans for the future, Ratnam together with his fellow directors are determined to promote the digital film industry and take its technology forward, whilst going on to profile the world’s personalities and firmly establish Sri Lanka as a force to be reckoned with in the international film arena.