Bridge on the River Kwai will rise again as Sri Lankan tourist draw
Sri Lankan authorities hope to draw tourists by rebuilding bridge blown up for 1957 film
Its detonation is one of the most famous scenes in movie history.
Now, 57 years after it was blown to smithereens, authorities in Sri Lanka plan to rebuild the centrepiece of the film Bridge on the River Kwai, to assuage the anger among locals over a controversial dam project.
The second world war epic was supposedly set in Japanese-held Burma - present-day Myanmar. But it was mostly filmed in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, between 1956 and 1957.
The final scene, in which a British officer played by Alec Guinness blows up a rail bridge that his fellow prisoners of war have just built, was shot at sleepy Kitulgala, two hours' drive from the capital Colombo.
In recent years, the village has become a magnet for adrenalin junkies who can white-water raft down the river, whose real name is the Kelani.
So when Sri Lanka's Electricity Board unveiled plans to dam the river as part of a US$82 million hydroelectric project, there was dismay among locals whose livelihoods depend on tourism.
But in a bid to soften the blow, the electricity board has said it will pay for the reconstruction of a new wooden bridge, built on the original's foundations, to attract fans of the Oscar-winning movie.