Atomics International
Film & Television Production
Laki Pattapola
Arts
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Idiōma
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Stories
Film & Television Production
Laki PattapolaOriginal stories rooted in identity, diaspora, and the textures of lived experience — told with cinematic ambition and production craft.
A comedy short exploring code-switching, identity, and the masks we wear to fit in — through the lens of a group of South Asian friends navigating a night out that goes sideways.
A multicultural production with a multicultural crew bringing things together — and best of all, catering was provided by the wonderful Hoppers restaurants, who delivered what cast and crew described as the best on-set catering they'd ever had.
Produced by Laki Pattapola & Shaun Rhodes. Directed by Alexander Moffat. Written by Mikhail Sen & Isobel Wood. Featuring Liam Williams, Isobel Wood, Mikhail Sen, Tibu Fortes, Harki Bhambra, and Omar Khan.
European Short Awards — Best Comedy Winner
All is not as it seems when a young woman battles for her life against a relentless masked killer.
Made as part of an initiative linked with the BAFTA Connect 2023–2026 cohort and Micro Short Films, Safe was turned around on a minimal budget without sacrificing production values — a philosophy evident in its continued festival success over two years after completion.
The film had its world premiere at the Leicester Square Odeon LUX cinema as part of FrightFest 2024 — a landmark achievement for a debut scripted project as writer and producer.
Written by Laki Pattapola. Produced by David Yorke & Laki Pattapola. Directed by David Yorke. Starring Sharon Sibyl Gatt & Joshua Whincup.
Spanning three generations and two continents, a grandmother, her daughter, and her young granddaughter share the ritual of draping a sari — from a seamstress's home in Sri Lanka, to the bustling sari houses of Wembley Road, to a child's small hands reaching for fabric she doesn't yet know how to hold.
An intimate cinematic documentary anchored by the sari as both physical object and emotional vessel. The film moves between the tactile ritual of draping, the vibrant sari shops of Wembley, and the quiet domestic spaces where tradition is passed down through gesture rather than words. At its heart, it's a meditation on what migration preserves, what it transforms, and what it quietly erases.
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After a messy night out leaves him stranded without keys, wallet, or dignity, young British Sri-Lankan Aravinda ends up in the cab of an older Sri-Lankan driver who insists on taking him home.
Over one late-night journey through London, their conversation — warm, probing, uncomfortable, and increasingly honest — cracks open everything both men have been avoiding: about faith, family, belonging, and the distance between the homeland they share and the lives they've actually built.
A real-time two-hander set entirely in a minicab. The opening intercutting — prayer ritual against club night, incense against cigarette, powder on the forehead against powder on the mirror — sets the tonal register: two worlds in one person.
Projects in active development — from scripts and bibles to financing and pre-production.
Six months after the death of his wife Riya — a celebrated bharatanatyam dancer who brought her family to Southend-on-Sea — Kyle can barely speak to his thirteen-year-old daughter Kashvi, who has destroyed her own dance costume and sworn she'll never perform again. When Kash reluctantly agrees to dance one last tribute at a local community show, Kyle must overcome his own grief and the quiet hostility of a town that never fully accepted his family.
In late-1980s Birmingham, loud-mouthed Jaggs and introverted musical prodigy Shaf — two Punjabi schoolboys — set out to throw the UK's first South Asian daytime rave after discovering they can fuse Bhangra with electronic beats. As their DIY scene explodes, a rival promoter, family honour, and Jaggs' entanglement with a local gang threaten everything — while Shaf's older sister Soni fights her own battle to master the dhol.
A selection of past projects across short film, music promo, documentary, and broadcast.
An understudy is pushed on stage to take over the part of Ulysses in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida" — but the disenchanted crew have their own plans for the newcomer. In post-production.
A performance film based on the Arabic word for movement. 2021.
Short film made with QMC Capoeira School in association with London Youth Charity about the effects of knife crime. 2020.
Music promo. Congo Natty Recordings. 2019.
Music promo. Congo Natty Recordings. 2019.
Short form highlights coverage of the iconic DIB motorsport event in the UAE. 2018.
Global event coverage for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge rally. 2019.
Factual short following Thailand's Witthaya Thamwong and the work of the Bangkok Archery Centre. 2015.
High-end factual entertainment. Watch / Sky / BBC. 2014.
Laki Pattapola is a writer-producer and the founder of Atomics International. An original storyteller with deep roots in technology and production, his creative work draws on over a decade of experience across VFX, post-production, and film — with credits spanning Star Wars, Bond, House of the Dragon, and Wheel of Time.
That technical foundation — understanding every stage of how a vision is delivered from pre-production through final pixel — informs and amplifies his voice as a filmmaker. His work focuses on British South Asian storytelling, exploring identity, diaspora, and belonging through narratives that are personal, culturally specific, and cinematically ambitious.
Selected as a BAFTA Connect member and Screenskills Leader of Tomorrow. His short film Safe premiered at FrightFest Leicester Square, and Code/Switch won Best Comedy at the European Short Awards and screened at Raindance.
lakipattapola.com — VFX Production Portfolio →