“I turned down an offer that I should not have refused” - Chandran Rutnam

Birthday party for Chandran Rutnam at the Playboy Club in Hollywood. On the left Chandran. Fourth from right Francis Ford Coppola.

Living in Los Angeles in the  60s I attended the extension course on filmmaking at the University of Southern California. My major was Film Editing. 
During this time I associated with a group of young film students and enthusiasts.
Among them were Tony Bill (who later produced the Academy Award winning film  titled “THE STING” starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman) and Francis Ford Coppola who had recently graduated from the University of California in Los Angeles.

Our families spent numerous times together as we sought our destinies.
As an aspiring filmmaker, who had the luck and good fortune of having worked as the Standby Prop man next to the great Director Sir David Lean on the movie, “Bridge on the River Kwai”....I had bought the rights to the novel by Dr Richard Spittel titled “Where the White Sambhur Roams.”

"I laughed it off and mentioned that I would need an experienced, known director to make it happen"

One evening while my then wife Judy and I were having dinner at Francis and Eleanor’s home in Hollywood, we discussed a documentary I had made of the Elephants of Sri Lanka. At that time I mentioned that I had bought the rights to Dr Spittel’s novel and that I was looking for a producer or director who might be interested. 
Francis immediately said that he could direct it. I laughed it off and mentioned that I would need an experienced, known director to make it happen.
Francis had at that time not directed a feature film. I now take the place of being the only person  to “...turn down an offer that I should not have refused.”

Francis of course went on to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time,  directing the three Godfather movies, ‘Apocalypse Now’ and several other award winning motion pictures.While shooting the film titled, “You’re a Big Boy now” in New York in 1965, he invited the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the U.S. Mr Suhith Gauthamadasa and me to the location shoot. It was a wonderful experience.
We are happy to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s Academy Award winning masterwork, THE GODFATHER, now showing in cinemas in Colombo.