Sri Lanka’s Sumathi Studios Launches ‘Rihana’ Starring Jeremy Irons

EXCLUSIVE: Sri Lanka’s Sumathi Studios is making its debut in Cannes with female-led human rights drama Rihana, featuring Jeremy Irons in a lead role, and directed by veteran filmmaker Chandran Rutnam, known for his work as a line producer on Hollywood films. 

Produced by Jagath Sumathipala, the film also stars Vidhushika Ramaraj as a Sri Lankan Tamil Muslim woman sent to work as a domestic helper in the Gulf who is wrongly accused of murdering an infant in her care. Irons plays a human rights activist who sets out to help her. 

The film is written and directed by Rutnam whose credits include award-winning features The Road from Elephant Pass (2009) and A Common Man (2013), an English-language thriller starring Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross. He is also known internationally as a line producer and production supervisor in Sri Lanka and Malaysia with credits including Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984) and Indochine (1992). 

“We were looking for projects with international potential when we met Chandran who said he had three scripts,” Sumathipala told Deadline. “We chose this one because we felt it’s a story we could tell the world. Our aim is not only to tell stories, but to bring them beyond Sri Lanka’s shores to a global audience.”

Chennai-based talent is also involved in the film, including creative producer Noah Abraham Prabu and composer Girishh Gopalakrishnan (Mookuthi Amman). Anusha Sanjeewa Edirimuni line produced the film with Chandana Jayasinghe and Ranga S. Bandara on board as cinematographers and Sunil Wijerathne as production desginer. Samantha Sumathipala, Chadu Sumathipala and Chathula Sumathipala co-produced.

The film is multilingual with dialogues in English, Arabic, Tamil and Sinhalese, making it unusual in Sri Lanka where most local productions are made in Sinhalese. 

Due to the sensitivity of its subject matter, Rihana was entirely filmed in Sri Lanka, which doubled for Saudi Arabia through the use of studio interiors and AI. Locations included the government-owned Ranminithanna Tele Cinema Village in the south of the country, as well as the capital Colombo, historical city of Galle, Kandy in the central region and locations in the east. 

Sri Lanka was a popular shooting location before the 27-year-long Civil War that ended in 2009, and was emerging again as a destination just as Covid and an economic crisis shut the country down again.

Productions are starting to return now that the country is more politically and economically stable, most notably Jenjira’s Magnificent Dream directed by Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul, which is currently shooting in the central highlands. 

In addition to its human rights message, Sumathipala said he hopes Rihana will bring attention to the talent and locations available in Sri Lanka. “We wanted to continue the legacy of Sumathi Studios as well as raise the profile of Sri Lanka as a place to come and shoot. We have many stunning locations and a lot of younger directors, writers and other production talents are starting to come through.” 

Sumathi Studios, founded by Sumathipala’s late father U.W. Sumathipala, has been producing Sri Lankan films since the 1970s, focusing on social issues dramas and stories about women. When U.W. Sumathipala passed away, his wife Milina Sumathipala took over the studio, becoming one of the first female producers in Sri Lanka to achieve international recognition.

The studio worked with acclaimed Sri Lankan filmmaker Lester James Peries and his wife Sumitra Peries on films including Lester James Peries’ White Flowers For The Dead (Ahasin Polawata), which won Best Film from the Third World at Cairo International Film Festival in 1978. 

Sumitra Peries’ The Girls (1978) was re-released this year in France following its selection for Cannes Classics in 2025. 

Rihana marks Sumathi Studios’ return to production following a ten-year hiatus since Sunil Ariyaratne’s Paththini in 2016. The film is screening in the Cannes Marche on May 20.