If you’ve yet to delve into the world of cinema from a local perspective, take your pick of some acclaimed films that were shot in its entirety, and others that were partially captured on our island home.

Sit back, get yourself some warm salted popcorn and enjoy a cinematic unwinding.

  • Bombay Velvet, 201-A Bollywood film based on the life of an ordinary man who goes against all odds and forges his destiny to become a ‘celebrity’.
  • Elephant Walk, 1954 – The movie relates the story of a young bride of a rich planter who finds herself the only white woman at Elephant Walk tea plantation, British Ceylon.
  • Water, 2005 – Set in colonial India against Gandhi’s rise to power, the movie tells the story of eight-year-old Chuyia, who is widowed and sent to a home to live in penitence; once there, her feisty presence deeply affects the lives of the other widowed residents.
  • The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957 – A Hollywood movie based on British POWs who are forced to build a railway bridge across the River Kwai for their Japanese captors, not knowing that the allied forces are planning to destroy it.
  • Mother Teresa, 1997 – A story of Mother Teresa, beginning in Calcutta, India, where she faces adversity from every direction and where she lays the foundation for her crusade to help the poorest of the poor.
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984 – Based in 1935, Indiana Jones arrives in India, still part of the British Empire, and is asked to find a mystical stone. He then stumbles upon a secret cult committing enslavement and human sacrifices in the catacombs of an ancient palace.
  • Midnight’s Children, 2012 – Story based on a pair of children, born within moments of India gaining independence from Britain, growing up in the country that is nothing like their parent’s generation.
  • The Road from Elephant Pass, 2008 – Set at the time of the Sri Lankan civil war, an army officer’s routine assignment to pick up a woman informant near Jaffna turns into a nightmare when the LTTE launch a massive attack in the peninsula targeting the camp at Elephant Pass.
  • Funny Boy, 2020 – The movie is an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai‘s 1994 novel of the same name, and centres on the coming of age of Arjie Chelvaratnam, a young Tamil boy in Sri Lanka who is coming to terms with his homosexuality against the backdrop of the increased tensions between Tamil and Sinhalese people before the breakout of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
  • The Third Wave, 2007 – The movie follows the lives of four volunteers who travel to Peraliya, Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, and their planned two-week journey which becomes a year of heartbreak and rebirth.
  • Sri Siddhartha Gautama, 2013 – Relating the story of a prince who is endowed with everything he needs and more, leaving behind all his worldly possessions and luxurious to an unknown journey of finding the end to human sorrow and suffering.
  • The Monkey Kingdom, 2015 – This nature documentary highlights the adventurous life of a young monkey and her son, living among ancient ruins in the jungle.
Known as one of the most memorable bands of the 1980’s, Duran Duran produced a trifecta of music videos filmed in Sri Lanka. 
Singer/Songwriter Dennis Lloyd, filmed the music video for his single ‘Never Go Back’ on our island as well.
Although The Good Karma Hospital TV Series is set in Southern India, it is actually filmed in the southern district of Galle, Sri Lanka. 

Disclaimer – The use of the movie posters are simply for reference and not meant for commercial purposes.