Taking videos to another level Jehan Ratnatunga

Demi HEWAMANNA

He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s cute… :) and he’s made more than 112 videos. He sees things and hears things and then he snaps into creative mode with his crew and begins the sketches of life as it really is seen thorugh realty.

The first time I got a chance to see one of his videos was when my friends had shared it on Facebook and it was none other the video “Certain Sri Lankan Mothers say”. All I could do was laugh laugh and laugh. From the costumes to the make-up to every phrase said – it got me to immediately mark it as a favourite and share it amongst my other friends. And so it continued where I would when I found the time, browse his videos and end my day with a good laugh.

I always did want to interview him but I was wondering how it was possible since he lived on the other side of the world and I was here. Well they say, if some things are to happen they will. And as luck would come, I did get the chance to meet this guy who has got so many people to look at certain things taking place in the country and around the world in a totally different manner.

He is none other than Jehan Ratnatunga and yes I got the chance to see the man myself and talk to him one on one :) and know how this young chap created a whirlwind of excitement and a big fan base from many Sri Lankan youth. Born and bred in Melbourne, Australia, Jehan had always had the roots of Sri Lankan culture and basic stuff growing in him thanks to his family plus his trips up and down for family get togethers etc.

“All of this started when my dad returned from a business trip and brought this video camera with him. I was like all excited with this and then I got together with my sister and cousins and made this murder mystery in the 3 hours my dad went to sleep”, a very cheery Jehan said.

He went on to say how everything began from there and how he came connected with YouTube. Introduced to the site by a friend, Jehan began making videos from left right and center and at that time, he didn’t have many people following him but somehow in 2011 with the video “Things Certain Sri Lankan Mothers say”, he basically just shot to fame.

YouTube and Sri Lanka

The guy, who made his name through YouTube, is now working at YouTube at the Content team. He said that YouTube is built into three parts – Content, Ads (sales and advertising team) and then there is the product engineering team in charge of the videos and all.

With PSY at AMA awards

“My job is like really to build a good partnership with the major content creating that’s basically looking into new investing with lots of new channels that are coming up, look at what kind of content to put like comedy, for family, kids or sports and who the right people to partner with and what are the right kind of partnerships”, Jehan added.

When I asked him how Sri Lanka sees itself on YouTube, he said that Sri Lanka has a huge audience of people around the world and YouTube is the perfect place to reach that audience. Number one, there is a huge content export opportunity of Sri Lanka. There is a lot of musical talent in here and in business point of view, there is big opportunity for businesses to do fun and creative things to market themselves – Dialog has been doing stuff, with competitions and they are really pioneering it. It’s a good way to engage people visually and I think Sri Lanka with the mix of international and local audience is in a unique position. But I think the only thing difficult is that people in Sri Lankan are little shy, where as comparing to Los Angeles everyone is an actor and love to be in front of the camera. It’s also a different cultural thing and they are willing to make an idiot of themselves in front of the camera.

Who gives a crap?

Moving on from there, speaking on what he does away from the camera, he added that he is working on a Feature film, focusing on Arranged Marriages and how people who don’t have this in their culture in Australia find it a really fascinating element. We are looking at this in a comedy side. More youth based and looking at it from the guy’s point of view rather than the girl’s. Another thing I’m working on is a charity project - “Who Gives a Crap?” and it’s a Toilet Paper venture where the idea is to buy toilet paper and the proceeds of it go to fund building toilets in the developing world.

This project has been going on for three years now and is taken care of by a friend who is now running the show in Australia and who is really into this kind of work. The basic idea was to see what if we built a charity or donation element with something we buy everyday and make the revenue go to a good cause. Then we thought about toilet paper because everyone needs to buy toilet paper and it’s a basic necessity and we decided that it should go to building toilets. At the moment this is done online and we are targeting businesses as well and delivery to them and we are at the experimental phase right now.

Meeting PSY

I moved to Los Angeles when I got the job at YouTube which was about a year ago. LA is a city where you have to figure it out and it’s not like Singpaore or New York where everything is central and you get it all in one shot. LA is one of these cities that take time and once you start meeting people like the people I met at YouTube and they show you around and you start discovering it, then it’s really nice. One of the guys who I’m sharing the house with that I met through online house listing tells me the stuff he goes through such as the auditioning, waiting for the call back, getting knocked back and everyone in the city is basically waiting for their big break which is why I really admire their focus.

Working at YouTube you get to see celebrities walking through office in and out and one of the biggest celebrities I got to meet was PSY (Opam Gangam Style). My boss got an invitation for the American Music Awards and somehow he and his wife couldn’t make it and he gave me the ticket to go with his assistant. When we went there, at the backstage, and who comes out- PSY. I saw him and I ran towards him and I was like, Psy can I take a photo with you and the poor guy was like bombarded and his bodyguards were like, ‘no photos, no photos’ and I was like in desperation shouted “but Psy, I work for YouTube and he like turns around and says, “YouTube, I love YouTube” and he stopped and took a photo and shook his hand and he said how much he loves YouTube and how it changed his life and he really gets it. The one thing I took away from that 5 seconds of meeting him was that I realized he is not the kind of guy who says, “I’m the man” and is really a down to earth man.

Youtube is focusing on getting more and more people to watch videos on YouTube as of right now its more of a snack in terms of video consumption and TV is like the main meal. They are trying to reach the daily habitual lot of viewing kind of thing and trying to jump from random standard videos to cyber channels. Like my channel which is a tiny channel and a channel about a topic and my channel is about Sri Lanka. Everything is centered on that and investing on different people to create channels, to make changes to their shows and format their layout and then marketing and educating the people about the channels on YouTube.

He’s got more up his sleeve and you know what you got to do now, to know more about him and get glimpse of his videos – YouTube it!