Chandran Rutnam

Chandran Rutnam (born 22 July 1940) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and entrepreneur.

Rutnam has hosted numerous Hollywood films for their location shoots in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Rutnam has also worked with Sir David Lean, Sir Carol Reed, John Boorman, George Lucas and Regis Wargnier.

Rutnam was the founder of Lionair, a defunct Sri Lankan airline, and owns the Asian Aviation Centre, an aeronautical engineering and flying academy.

Family Rutnam was born to a Tamil father James T. Rutnam and a Sinhalese mother Evelyn Wijeyaratne. He lived in Los Angeles, California, US for 38 years and now resides in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is a brother of Jayam Rutnam, the founder of the Sri Lanka America Association of Southern California (SLAASC). Due to this exposure, to the consternation of his parents, he dropped out of school and went to London to pursue his dream of a career in films. He later moved to the United States and attended the film school at the University of Southern California and the San Fernando Valley College of Law. While working in Hollywood studios, Rutnam's break in selling Sri Lankan locations to international filmmakers came when he managed to convince John Derek, director of Tarzan the Apeman, to shoot the film in Sri Lanka rather than in Africa. He founded Asian Aviation Centre and Lionair. Lionair was established in October 1993 and started its operations on 24 October 1994. Lionair suspended its domestic services when Lionair Flight 602, an Antonov An-24 aircraft went missing shortly after it took off from Jaffna in 1998, but resumed services in October 2002.

Filmography Theatrical releases

Awards and nominations

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