Sri Lanka Showbiz Latest News and Updates

A young girl has been left unable to walk or talk after a lorry ploughed into the back of a broken down car. A family-of-four were left seriously injured when the HGV hit their Nissan X-Trail on the hard shoulder of the M42 in Warwickshire on April 28, 2022.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) South Asia has a sizzling summer slate lined up in the kids space including a mix of anime and homegrown IP. Launching on the Indian animation-focused Pogo channel in May is new Indian IP “Jay Jagannath.” The series portrays the friendship between the Hindu God Lord Jagannath, who has taken the form of a child, Jagan, and his devout follower Balaram.

Naman Ramachandran U.K.-based sales agent Reason8 Films has sold 2023 Venice title “The Red Suitcase” to HBO for Europe and Suraya Filem for Malaysia and Brunei. The 15 territories covered under the HBO deal include Albania, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Bulgaria. Reason8 Films said that advanced negotiations are on for North America and Latin America.

Naman Ramachandran Indian sales outfit Indywood Distribution Network has sold Rupesh Paul’s “Kamasutra – The Revenge” wide ahead of Hong Kong’s film rights market FilMart. Starring Sherlyn Chopra, Milind Gunaji and Gajendra Chauhan, and produced by San2Creations, the film follows two princesses – one who is robbed of her dreams when forced to accept a middle-aged king as her husband, and another thirsty for revenge. Indywood has sold the film to Twin (Japan, all rights); A2 Filmes (Latin America TV/VOD); Filmbridge (Mongolia, all rights); Pioneer Film (Philippines, all rights) and RFT Films (U.K./Ireland, theatrical).

A Canadian college student has been arrested and charged with six counts of murder after police say he slaughtered a family with an “edged weapon.” Per reports from Reuters, CBC

Naman Ramachandran Feature debutant writer-director Shaun Seneviratne has unveiled the first clip of “Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts,” which will world premiere at SXSW in the narrative feature competition. Starring Sathya Sridharan (“The Whale”) and Anastasia Olowin (“Tourists”), the film is set in Sri Lanka, the land of Seneviratne’s heritage. The actors play the characters Ben Santhanaraj and Suzanne Hopper in a romantic reunion turned unconventional adventure in a hilarious yet amorous journey across the country.

A guest on the latest episode of BBC Antiques Roadshow was so so shocked by his valuation that he pleaded with the experts “don’t tell my wife”.

Room to Read, a global education nonprofit tackling illiteracy and gender inequality, announced a partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery for the premiere of , the first nonprofit-led animation and live-action film project to promote gender equality through the stories of young women around the world.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery and Room to Read have partnered on “She Creates Change,” an animation and live-action film project to promote gender equality through the stories of young women around the world. Room to Read is a global education nonprofit aiming to creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality.

Naman Ramachandran Ameen Sayani, the doyen of Indian radio, died on Tuesday in Mumbai following a heart attack. He was 91. The news was confirmed by his son Rajil Sayani.

Naman Ramachandran Streamer Lionsgate Play has teamed with Grameenphone, a leading telecom services provider in Bangladesh, to expand its presence in the country. Grameenphone, part of Norway’s Telenor Group, has some 82 million subscribers, to whom it offers a bouquet of streaming services.

Naman Ramachandran The late Pema Tseden‘s “Snow Leopard” (China) won the top prize, the Golden Cyclo, at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema on Tuesday. The film, which previously won awards at the Tokyo and Hainan festivals, also won Vesoul’s National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (INALCO) jury prize and actor Tseten Tashi scored a jury special mention. Pema Tseden (aka Wanmacaidan) died in May last year, age 53.

Adventurer and TV presenter Ben Fogle is back on our screens tonight with his new showBen Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.The programme, airing at 9pm on Channel 5, sees Ben visiting Sri Lanka to stay with Naveen and Anke at their home in the country's highlands. Undoubtedly his family is incredibly proud of his latest project, including his wife Marina.The couple have been happily married for 17 years and share two children, Ludovic Herbert Richard, born in 2009, and Iona, born in 2011. Marina, who was previously known as Marina Hunt, co-founded The Bump Class, a business that offers guidance and antenatal classes to expectant mums.

Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson had an extra reason to celebrate this week as she proudly showed off her brand new £150,000 car after successfully passing her driving test.The 32 year old singer was spotted filling up her stylish Mercedes G Wagon G63 shortly after passing her test, as she made the most of the new found freedom that came with the ability to drive her brand news set of wheels. Dressed down for the occasion, Jesy cut a casual figure in a lilac tracksuit emblazoned with smiley faces as she opted for a make-up free complexion to fill up her new motor at a local petrol station in Essex.

Naman Ramachandran Indian star Shruti Haasan will headline India-U.K. film co-production “Chennai Story.” Haasan, who is also a renowned musician, has acting credits across India’s various language film industries and in the U.S. and U.K.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Pitch International have signed a package of rights that will see them broadcast live international cricket hosted in India on its linear and digital platforms, TNT Sports and Discovery+, for the next five years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Evil Does Not Exist” and Korean blockbuster “12.12: The Day” dominated the nominations for the 17th edition of the Asian Film Awards. Both picked up six nominations, including those in the best film category. The nominations were announced on Friday afternoon in Hong Kong, ahead of a ceremony on March 10, that will return to the city’s West Kowloon Cultural District and the Qiyu Centre.

A couple who sank their life savings into renovating a hotel in the Highlands say they've "lost everything" after a flood wreaked havoc on the property. Des Thomson, 50 and Sinead Finnegan, 40, walked into a nightmare when they returned from a trip in Sri Lanka on December 19 to find their beloved Osprey Hotel, in Kingussie, completely destroyed.

“Each year, First Feature Competition is something truly special. We can’t wait to introduce these emerging talents to the world.”, she adds.

Paradise, directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage, is playing in the Icons: South Asia section of Mumbai Film Festival, fresh from its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival where it won the Jiseok Award.

UK director George Amponsah’s thriller Gassed Up has won the London Film Festival (LFF) Audience Award for Best Feature in the 67th edition running from October 4 to 15, as the event also posts record participation.

The Wrestler, directed by Bangladeshi-Canadian filmmaker Iqbal H. Chowdhury, and September 1923, from Japan’s Tatsuya Mori, picked up the New Currents Awards as Busan International Film Festival wrapped a busy 28th edition on October 13. 

EXCLUSIVE: Anand Ramayya’s Karma Film is set to produce Maya Bastian’s The Devil’s Tears alongside Canada’s Blackout Media, while Shant Joshi’s Fae Pictures has also come on board to executive produce. 

Mumbai Film Festival has announced a packed line-up of 250 films, including the 14 titles selected for its inaugural South Asia Competition, part of an expansion of the festival’s vision to become a hub for works from South Asia and South Asian diaspora talent. 

Naman Ramachandran Sri Lankan auteur Prasanna Vithanage is back at the Busan International Film Festival with thriller “Paradise,” which is in the Jiseok competition. The film follows Indian couple – streaming content producer Kesav (Roshan Mathew, Sundance 2023 series “Poacher”) and blogger Amritha (Darshana Rajendran, “Hridayam”) – who are on vacation in Sri Lanka during the country’s ongoing economic crisis. They are the victims of a robbery and find themselves in the thick of the agitations.

The San Sebastian Film Festival awarded O Corno (The Rye Horn) with the Golden Shell for Best Film. San Sebastián native Jaione Camborda took the top prize of the night for the feature she directed.

The Great British Bake Off has finally made its return to TV screens, with 12 new amateur bakers ready to battle it out to be crowned the winner. And although only one episode has aired so far, viewers have already predicted that intelligence analyst Saku may be taking home the crown.

J. Kim Murphy Mankind is barreling further into an age of climate disaster, but whether it has the speaking vocabulary, much less a cinematic one, to accurately interpret its rapidly changing environment is another matter. With his astonishing new experimental feature, “The Human Surge 3,” Argentine filmmaker Eduardo Williams proposes a new analogue for the sensation of modern living: It’s kind of like seeing panoramas shot with a 360-degree camera, navigated via a VR headset and then translated back to a traditional cinematic frame, completely and utterly distorting the imagery in the process.

Naman Ramachandran “The Red Suitcase,” which world premieres in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand, is a rare Nepal-Sri Lanka co-production. The producers have released a first clip from the film. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Fidel Devkota, who previously directed the short “The Last Yak Herder of Dhe” (2014) and documentary short “Wind of Change in Lo Mustang” (2016).

A teenager in Sri Lanka is the focus of a shocking new report after doctors surgically removed an 8-inch wire from HIS PENIS…