• International award-winning Director Roshan Fernando on the plight of stray dogs and why he wanted to highlight their story

A cardboard box. A deserted street in Colombo. An abandoned puppy with nowhere to go, until two homeless strangers, who have almost nothing themselves, decide that he was worth everything. That’s ‘Little Life’, and now it is a Sri Lankan short film making global headlines. Competing against entries from 34 countries, it just took home the Gold, Silver, and Bronze at the 2026 Los Angeles (LA, United States) Independent Shorts Awards. In the studio was award-winning cinematographer-turned-Director Roshan Fernando on Kaleidoscope Life Dialogues and he had much to reflect on. 

Following are excerpts from the interview:

Tell me a little bit about the hero of this story 

Onscreen, his name was Bunnis. But now, his name is Brown. I adopted him after the movie because I was not very happy to let him go. He helped us make this magic.

What was the moment when you decided that this story needs to be told?

I was chosen by Warner Brothers to do a film about monkeys in Sri Lanka, and while I was filming that, I thought, why don’t we do a story about the city’s animals that adopt human behaviour and human activities? The dog is called the human’s best companion after all, and stray dogs are everywhere. 

That made me think about a documentary, but it never happened because I was busy. You know how it goes, the moment that we think of doing something, there’s something that comes up. Then, I thought, let me do a movie, a short film, to make this voice, this project, a little bit more impactful. We were not expecting anything to happen, and then it happened.

This bond between Pradeep, Uma, and Bunnis just feels incredibly authentic and very close to everybody's heart. We see this on the roads every day, right? How did you find your cast and what did you put together to make sure that this got that authentic feeling?

When I was doing my research, I was driving around Colombo and seeing this happening most of the time. Security guards would feed the dogs and look after them and garbage collectors would do the same. It’s not about the people who have everything. These are people who don’t have anything, but they have a golden heart to treat these animals well, the way that they can. 

That’s where the gem of the story comes from. What I thought was, let me project this story into a short film and tell the world how much love and care that these people have. That’s where I thought to make this story. 

For the casting, I was thinking of Priyantha Sirikumara for Pradeep and Kaushalya Fernando for Uma, and of course they did a tremendous job. The greatest moment that I have ever come across in filmmaking was the scene where Brown gets adopted – because Bunnis also got adopted! That was real, and that’s how the liveliness comes to the screen.

Every movie has obstacles that you have to cross. Did ‘Little Life’ have one of those?

‘Little Life’ had, you name it, everything. From the moment that we started ‘Little Life’, we had to deal with everything. Three days before the film, we realised that the people who were supposed to help us never meant to help us. There were no phones being answered. 

Then, we had to move forward, so we chose another set of puppies. They all died because of distemper. Brown was chosen three to four days before, and he did a tremendous job, whatever the way that he could. We had to go through a lot, but I think that we made it successful.

Filming with an animal like Bunnis, untrained, real street locations, small crew, what was that production experience like day to day?

The most important thing is that I specialise as a wildlife director of photography. That experience made me able to do this without a problem. The actor usually adapts to the production. Here, what we did is adapt ourselves around Bunnis, because Bunnis wasn't trained.

We cannot get the facial expressions and feelings that an animal could naturally give, artificially, especially not from an untrained dog. To get us there, we would play around the set to make Bunnis feel comfortable. Then, somehow, the magic happened. We used three cameras most of the time.

 Was there one scene or shot that you finally got and made you think ‘this is the film that I wanted to make’?

There was a scene with the rival party, who is the couple’s neighbour. His character is not a beggar but he is connected to everybody and pretends to be a beggar. He gives money to people and all that. He has a phone and all that, but he pretends to be a beggar. Because he wants to have his things going around, he doesn’t like the dog. So, he wants to poison him one time. 

That was a moment where Pradeep, Uma, and Brown had to sleep. We had to actually wait until Brown slept, make the set completely quiet and shoot it in a real environment, where it was an actual set and we had to place three cameras. One was for Brown’s close-up, where Brown is sleeping and waking up. When Uma wakes up, she sees dead rats. That’s when Pradeep goes and blasts the guy. Then the dog gets out and comes in, excited about what is happening around. That sequence was entirely shot in one take. That was the difficult part, but we made it happen.

When did you realise that ‘Little Life’ actually resonates with the audience? Was there anything that you heard or some feedback that you got?

The name ‘Little Life’ came from the theme song that we used. It’s Amarsha Tissera’s song which we adopted for the film. I asked her and she was very happy to give it to us as the theme song. When we were doing the film, and soon after the premiere, if people were coming out with a little bit of tears, that meant, okay, this is not as great as Hollywood movies like ‘Hachiko’ or ‘Beethoven’. But, at least, we went somewhere closer to that, where we could make somebody cry on behalf of that.

Watching the silver screen, you feel the same thing about the dog. Some people are closing their eyes and watching. They don’t want the dog to be poisoned, and so on. The other thing is that when the young couple adopted a dog without a clue, there was a problem there. How an innocent party would face a sequel like this and how they face it, and how helpless they are. Sometimes, they can’t express themselves as it is, but they have a golden heart and they are helpless.

At the LA Short Awards, you got Gold for First-Time Director, Silver for Best English short, and Bronze for Best Acting Duo - out of 34 countries. What did that moment feel like to have Sri Lankan cinema on the global stage, and also for you?

I actually never expected this to go this way, but luckily, we made something that gives a voice to these innocent animals. It made our country proud, as well as our actors proud. And the music was fantastic as well. We didn’t do it alone. We have a team: actors, lighting crew, music composers, the person who drove vehicles for the set, everybody together. We made this film. And more than everything, Brown, the representative of the voiceless. He’s been a heroic character in this and he played a massive role in it. I think, I hope, that we deserve it.

Where is Brown now?

Brown is with me. I adopted him. I gave him the chance of his life. He’s being spoiled and doing all kinds of naughty things,he’s staying with me forever.

So, where do you go from here? Do you have another feature film in mind? Do you have another story to tell?

There are so many stories like ‘Little Life’ to tell. If you go to a street junction from here, there’s so much story that you can capture. You don’t need a big budget. You can go very simple and tell your story. The story doesn’t have to have a Hollywood crew, but a small thing, a small plot that makes people feel would make it. As for what’s next, I’m thinking about doing some things, but nothing concrete yet. You’ll see soon enough. 

The writer is the host, director, and co-producer of the weekly digital programme Kaleidoscope with Savithri Rodrigo which can be viewed on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. She has over three decades of experience in print, electronic, and social media

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The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication