A recent social media post about the British TV series Good Karma Hospital from one of our managed properties, the gorgeous Satori Villa, started us thinking about Sri Lanka’s sideline as a film location. In particular we were musing over how people don’t know how much is filmed here as our stock-in-trade is “pretending to be somewhere else” Of the many to choose from here are two of Sri Lanka’s perhaps most famous yet at the same time, least known, impersonations.

The wild waters of Kitugala are a popular destination for white water rafting.  Whilst bouncing down the rapids, few people realise that the river has an alter-ego as the River Kwai and was the location for David Lean’s Academy Award winning epic, Bridge on the River Kwai. Nor that Mr Lean very nearly met a watery end when he was swept away during filming.

Steven Spielberg’s 1984 blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was scheduled to be shot in Rajasthan. However, when the Indian authorities objected to elements of the script, the filming was relocated to Sri Lanka. The iconic rope bridge scene was filmed in a gorge downriver from the Victoria Dam whilst the Mount Lavinia Hotel in Colombo was used for the hospital scenes.