Ceylon (film)

Ceylon Inam in Tamil is a 2013 Indian war drama film written, directed, filmed and produced by Santosh Sivan. The story revolves around a group of teenagers in an orphanage set during the civil war in Sri Lanka. The film premiered at the 2013 Busan International Film Festival and had a theatrical release in India onMarch 2014. Although it was positively received by critics, the film was withdrawn by Santosh Sivan from theatres, but met with protests three days later owing to protests from fringe Tamil groups in Tamil Nadu. It was election time and the film was a U censored, and had a Govt Tax free tag .Cast

Santosh Sivan later said that the film was about a bunch of teenagers in an orphanage, and set against the backdrop of a civil strife. One of the teenagers, the protagonist was a 16yearold boy, Karan, with Downs Syndrome with whom Sivan spent nine months before shooting the film. Sugandha Ram, who acted in Tere Bin Laden before, was chosen to portray the female lead. Sugandha later told that the film was offered in 2010 to her but did not happen then and that the script was later altered and she got an opportunity to audition for the role again. It was reported that Saritha played the role of a person who runs the orphanage. According to Sivan, the idea for the film was conceived over a Sri Lankan lunch with a friend during which they met a lady who ran an orphanage in Sri Lanka. Sivan wanted director Stanley for a role, but cast Karunas for it since he could also sing. Karunas was said to have done a serious role unlike his usual comic self. Sivan stated, my film is about human aspirations and emotions shattered by the war, not about the politics behind it. He also clarified the film will have nothing to do with the LTTE. Sivan spent months researching and getting footage for the film. He shot it in Tamil as Inam but also made the film into English for a larger audience and titled it Ceylon. The Tamil version was longer and included songs, scenes for comic relief and the making of the film over end credits and the English version, Sivan said, is much tighter.The film was shot by Sivan himself in various locations including Kerala, Thirunelveli, Rameswaram and Maharashtra with a Red Epic digital camera. Since he could not go for many takes, three or four cameras were used at the same time. Though he used a highend digital camera he said that he purposely made the shots look candid as if they had been captured through a mobile phone or a handheld camera as he found out that mobile phones played an imp

Source: Wikipedia