Date
Thursday 01 July 2021
18:30 to 19:15
Location
Facebook and YouTube live event

Join us live on 1 July at 6.30 p.m. IST on Facebook and YouTube
Facebook live     YouTube live

"The journey from the luminous simplicity of childhood into the more intricately shaded world of adults – with its secrets, its injustices, and its capacity for violence – is a memorable one, as time and time again the true longings of the human heart are held against the way things are.” 
Shyam Selvadurai, Author, Funny Boy

Join author Shyam Selvadurai, and actors, Brandon Damian Ingram, Nimmi Harasgama, and Rehan Mudannayake from the film cast of ‘FUNNY BOY’ for a conversation and dramatic reading, moderated by Ashok Ferry on Thursday, 1 July 2021 at 6.30 p.m. IST

“A powerful and beautifully written novel…” — Literary Review (UK)

The book has received the following distinctions; screen adaptation with Deepa Mehta, winner of the WH Smith Books/Books in Canada First Novel Award, winner of the Lambda Award for Best Gay Men’s Fiction (1997), shortlisted for the Giller Prize (1994) and an American Library Association Notable Book (1996).

The film directed by Deepa Mehta, written by Deepa Mehta and Shyam Selvadurai has received three wins at the Canadian Screen Awards CA (2021) for Achievement in Direction, Achievement in Music - Original Score, and Adapted Screenplay. The film has also received, in total, eight nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards CA (2021), Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards (2021), and Leo Awards (2021).

This event is hosted by the British Council in celebration of Pride Month 2021. 

Note: this event will be available to be viewed later on both our Facebook and YouTube channels after the live event.

Author, Shyam Selvadurai

Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy, won the W.H. Smith/ Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award in the US. He is the author of Cinnamon Gardens, Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, and The Hungry Ghosts. His work has been translated into 9 languages and published worldwide. Shyam wrote the screenplay of Funny Boy along with Deepa Mehta, who also directed the film. He won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 2021 for Funny Boy. 

Actor, Rehan Mudannayake

Rehan Mudannayake is an award-winning Sri Lankan film director, actor and writer. He stars as Shehan Soyza in Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta’s feature film Funny Boy, based on Shyam Selvadurai’s acclaimed novel. A former Chevening Scholar at University College London (UCL) and Erasmus scholar at the University of Amsterdam, his own films have screened at multiple international festivals, from Jakarta to Dhaka, from LA to London. 

Actress, Nimmi Harasgama

Nimmi Harasgama wears many hats in the creative arts industry. She is an award-winning actor, writer, and disruptive social media influencer. She is known in the UK for playing Nurse Mari in The Good Karma Hospital  for which she has been nominated for Best Performance in a Drama by the British National Television awards. In Sri Lanka she is most recently known for her Auntie Netta sketches as ambassador for the World Health Organisation(WHO) and as the parody social media influencer, Brulee.

Actor, Brandon Damian Ingram

Brandon Damian Ingram is a storyteller, first and foremost. He is sometimes an actor of both stage and film, his most recent performance being in Deepa Mehta's globally acclaimed film, Funny Boy, based on Shyam Selvadurai's book of the same name, in which he plays the title character. He is a full-time Creative Director for Wunderman Thompson (formerly JWT) in Sri Lanka, where he is the Head of Creative & Digital Communications.

Moderator, Ashok Ferrey

Bestselling Sri Lankan author Ashok Ferrey has five books to his credit, all of them nominated for the Gratiaen Prize or State Literary Award. His latest, The Unmarriageable Man (Penguin), is set in 1980s South London, where he was a builder at the time. By day, Ashok is a personal trainer.

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