Total Films website – 30th August, 2011

30 year old ex-doctor wins contest

By Jane Crowther

Total Film has joined forces with Richard E Grant on a panel of judges to choose British Airways Great Briton in the film category – giving one aspiring filmmaker the chance to make the short film which will feature in the Opening ceremony of London’s 2012 games.

Prasanna Puwanarajah, a 30-year-old writer, actor and director (and former NHS doctor) from West London beat hundreds of amateur and professional scriptwriters to make his short, which will be guided by Grant in mentoring sessions and shown on all BA flights from next March.

His win will be announced tomorrow.

Puwanarajah’s screenplay is still a work in progress but Grant describes the story of one man’s emotional and physical journey to the games as ‘Rocky on wheels’. “The hope is that it’ll be warm, funny and moving,” says Puwanarajah. “I’ll try and give the audience a journey with a number of flavours.”

“I’m really thrilled about getting to work on it. It’s going to be a couple of months of solid graft but I can’t wait to see the film for the first time at the opening ceremony.”

While being part of Olympic history is no mean feat, Puwanarajah is equally happy to be on the road to making feature films (‘I just want to develop as many different stories as I can’) and working with Withnail himself.

“I’m a huge Withnail fan and he’s a really lovely guy with amazing experience. So I’m looking forward to getting to work with him.”

TF will be on set when filming starts but for more info check out www.ba.com/greatbritons.