• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Lanka
  • Video
  • World
  • Features
  • Fun
    • Photography
    • Music
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Wind Direction Lanka

My Bond To You As A Writer

English Version

Sinhalese Version

Sony, the movie “Kabul Express” and my experience

July 27, 2020 by Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Linda Arasano, who played Reuters photographer Jessica Beckham with a Sony camera in the Kabul Express Bollywood film.

By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi

The news of Associated Press’s decision to make Sony its official camera reminded me of an experience fourteen years ago.

That was November 2006. At that time, Sri Lanka was not a good time for journalists. The Sri Lankan government, on the one hand, is waging war against the LTTE, and in parallel has launched a war front against journalists. My main responsibility at the time, working for the Reuters news service, was to take pictures of the war. Despite my long experience and connections in the international news service, I also had two fronts of my own. That is, reporting on the war in the North and facing public and private media barriers imposed by the government in the South. In those days I was facing hostile reactions created in the society against the foreign media which reported war indirectly through the pro-government media. In that background, when I went to the office one morning, Due to a life-threatening situation, the top staff of the News Service decided to assign me to a foreign service and release me from Sri Lanka as soon as possible. I stayed in the Reuters news security shelter on corporate security instructions until my emergency flight was planned and left for India on the first flight the next morning.

I was warmly welcomed by my Reuters staff and colleagues in India and by newspaper photographers in Mumbai, and for three months I was based in Reuters, Mumbai, photographing a number of cities in India. During this time, a new Bollywood film was released in Mumbai. It was called the Kabul Express. The film, directed by Kabir Khan, is a production of Aditya Chopra. Starring John Abraham and Arshad Wasi, it tells the story of an Indian Star News team on a journey to cover the lives of the Taliban in Afghanistan. My colleagues at the Reuters news service in Mumbai knew about this film before it was screened and encouraged me to go see it as it was a story about journalists.

.

The three Reuters photographers who visited Kabul Express at the time, Panith Paranje from left, Arco Data and the writer.

One day I went to the Regal Cinema in Mumbai with my Reuters colleagues Arco Dutt (2004 world news photographer, world press photo winner) and Panith Paranjpe (now senior news photographer French news service) to watch “Kabul Express”.

As the story of the film unfolds, another journalist meets the two Indian journalists on their way from India to the Taliban in Kandahar. As they speak, she turns to them, and then the audience can see that she was taking pictures with a Sony camera. It is not difficult to understand from that point of view that one of the production objectives of the film is to present a Sony camera. But introducing herself to Indian journalists, she told us that she was from the United States and that she worked for Reuters. 

It was a funny scene for us back then, not only because the three of us had already worked for Reuters for many years in the war zones, but also because the film’s character was photographed on a Sony camera for Reuters. It’s no secret that international news photographers always work in the background, as we are shown in the film, with Laika, Canon or Nikon cameras at the highest level of professionalism. 

Sony would like to give a professional level transaction to all the photographers of the Associated News Service, the largest news network in the world, fourteen years later. Congratulations Sony!

Regal Cinema in Mumbai screened by Kabul Express
facebook Share on Facebook
Twitter Tweet
Follow Follow us
custom Share
custom Share
custom Share
custom Share
custom Share

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: Camera

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Wind Direction Lanka Logo
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

My right and desire to disclose information, and your right and desire to know it, are an unbreakable bond between us.

“Trump” or the American clown.

November 7, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

“Another Life” - Photography Self Analysis

“Another Life” – Photography Self Analysis

November 4, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

“Jerusalema” Challenges the Repentance of the Global Plague.

“Jerusalema” Challenges the Repentance of the Global Plague.

November 4, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Holy water have used to rivers for Covid 19 by Sri Lankan Government Authority.

November 2, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Sri Lanka is a victim of dictatorship

October 23, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Eight tons of dried turmeric seizes by navy

August 20, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Export vegetables and fruits to America from Mattala is a false propaganda

August 20, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Is the power outage all over Sri Lanka a symbol of the coming dark age?

August 17, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Facebook apologizes for using racist attacks on Sri Lankan Muslim community

August 17, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Student in England unhappy with non-exam results

August 16, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Photojournalist dies in a Glider crash.

August 16, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Sri Lanka agrees to host England tour of India

August 16, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Corona gives life to Sri Lankan elephants

Corona gives life to Sri Lankan elephants

August 16, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Lion bravery trading is down

Lion trading is down.

August 16, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

A story of Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez

Sri Lankan Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez is a global star

August 16, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Photo Essays – Flying where a photographer should swim

August 16, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

U.S. warships conduct exercises in the South China Sea

August 15, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

The Rajapaksa victory and its weight

August 15, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Beirut explosion – Ministers resign due to explosion

August 9, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Beirut explosion: Loss of 300,000 homes destroys 85% of the country’s grain reserves.

August 5, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Beirut eruption: Darkness and tears for Lebanon

August 5, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Britain unhappy with human rights in Sri Lanka.

July 31, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Photographer's dream

The world’s most valuable camera lens

July 30, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Australian HMAS sent to the South Seas Canberra warship

Australia sends warships to the South China Sea

July 30, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Artificial Intelligence

It is found that machines can gain knowledge automatically

July 28, 2020 By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi Leave a Comment

Footer

Site Navigation

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Features
  • Fun
  • Home
  • Lanka
  • Privacy Policy
  • Video
  • World

Recent Articles

  • “Trump” or the American clown.
  • “Another Life” – Photography Self Analysis
  • “Jerusalema” Challenges the Repentance of the Global Plague.
  • Holy water have used to rivers for Covid 19 by Sri Lankan Government Authority.
  • Sri Lanka is a victim of dictatorship
  • Eight tons of dried turmeric seizes by navy
  • Export vegetables and fruits to America from Mattala is a false propaganda

Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi

I was educated at Ananda College, Colombo for twelve years as a child and then studied drama, photography and journalism and later chose journalism as my career. He entered the media as an amateur writer and photographer and was a news photographer for a national newspaper.

Thereafter I became the Sri Lankan News Photographer for the International Reuters News Service. Under this, I received specialised training in international media services in Hong Kong and London. During that time, I was responsible for publicizing news photographs of the state of Sri Lanka and the Maldives around the world through the Reuters news service, especially near the events of the Sri Lankan civil war, and photographed areas of government forces as well as Tamil rebels. I escaped about seven fatal accidents there, and one time I was injured in a suicide bombing.

© MMXX Wind Direction Lanka (English Version) by Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi