PROFILE OF A PETERITE FILM DIRECTOR – LESTER JAMESPERIES Source : ST PETER’S COLLEGE OBSC Melbourne Summer Newsletter – 2023 / 2023 Lester James Peries was a Sri Lankan film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Considered as the father of Sri Lankan cinema, Lester worked as a filmmaker from 1949 to 2006 and was involved in over 28 films, including shorts and documentaries. He received critical acclaim for directing Rekava, Gamperaliya, Nidhanaya, Golu Hadawatha, Kaliyugaya, Awaragira, and Yuganthaya. His movie Wekande Walauwa, starring Ravindra Randeniya and Malini Fonseka, was Sri Lanka’s first ever submission for the Academy Awards and the film Nidhanaya was included among the top 100 films of the century by Cinémathèque Française. Peries’ films often dealt with Sri Lankan family life in rural settings and conflicted characters. He helped create an authentic expression of Sinhala Cinema. He attended St Peter’s College in Colombo as a teenager before ...
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Lester and Ceylon Theatres : The Peak of a career-By Uditha Devapriya Source:Island The three films that Lester James Peries directed for Ceylon Theatres – Golu Hadawatha (1968), Akkara Paha (1969), and Nidhanaya (1970) – stand out among the finest ever made in this country. They are an affirmation of life, sweeping epic-like fables that seem to tell us about ourselves, who we are and how we live. When Ceylon Theatres commissioned Peries to take on these projects, it was allegedly on the verge of bankruptcy. As he recalled for A. J. Gunawardena many, many years later, the company had reached a point where it preferred serious, low budget productions to expensive box-office flops. The trilogy marked Peries’s second foray into a production financed by a mainstream studio. The first was, of course, Sandeshaya, produced by K. Gunaratnam. But Sandeshaya was of a totally different calibre, mainstream and conventional in ...
Oct 9, 2022
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Tagged Ananda Jayaratne, Ceylon Theatres – Golu Hadawatha, Gamini Fonseka, Lester James Peries, Martin Wickramasinghe, P. E. Anthonypillai
Tony Ranasinghe multifaceted, multi-talented stage, film debonair thespian character actor, author, script writer,most romantic lover in our films – By Sunil Thenabadu As a schoolboy, Tony had been too shy to take part in plays but as a grownup, he yearned to be an actor. Even as a schoolboy he had been enamoured of acting but his shyness had stood in the way. But now the acting bug bit him hard. He was drawn towards acting Tony is one of the few actors in our country who uses facial expressions in whatever role he plays in the most natural way. This makes him so unique Tony’s cherished ambition to blaze a name for himself on the silver screen remained unfulfilled for many years. He went for interviews and auditions but was unsuccessful. The yearning to act on screen was stirring within him but try as he might, Tony just could ...
Sep 7, 2022
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Articles, Sunil Thenabadu
Tagged Anthony de Silva, Delovak Athara, Gamini Fonseka, Joe Abeywickrama, Lester James Peries, Ralex Ranasinghe, silver screen, Sinhala cinema, Sinhala films, Sri Lankan film, Sugathapala De Silva, Tony, Tony Ranasinghe, Vanisiye Welenda, Vijaya Kumaratunga
Roshan Pilapitiya a revelation of a dignified superlative actor, over three decades in an effervescent voyage – By Sunil Thenabadu Roshan Pilapitiya was born as the youngest in a family of four siblings to affluent parents in Hangurnketha close to Kandy.His father Ariya Abhayasinghe, a proprietary tea planter while his mother Mallika Pilapitiya had been the lead actress in the our first outdoor movie Rekawa directed by Lester James Peiris After his primary education in native Hanguranketha , Roshan was admitted to Dharmarajah College Kandy to pursue his higher education. Although he was good in studies had excelled in dramas and was adjudicated as the best actor in drama in year 1988. Although Roshan possessed innate aptitude for acting with his mother’s influence he had never thought then of creating a career for himself as an actor as music was his obsession then His passion for music continued after leaving school having joined the Red Heart band as a vocalist cum as a guitarist and key board player. He had recorded a number of his own songs. He ...
Feb 9, 2022
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Articles, Sunil Thenabadu
Tagged Dharmarajah College Kandy, Lester James Peries, Mallika Pilapitiya, Roshan Pilapitiya, Sumathi awards
Roshan Pilapitiya- Dignified Superlative Actor – By Sunil Thenabadu Roshan Pilapitiya was born as the youngest in a family of four siblings to affluent parents in Hangurnketha close to Kandy.His father Ariya Abhayasinghe, a proprietary tea planter while his mother Mallika Pilapitiya had been the lead actress in the our first outdoor movie Rekawa directed by Lester James Peiris After his primary education in native Hanguranketha , Roshan was admitted to Dharmarajah College Kandy to pursue his higher education. Although he was good in studies had excelled in dramas and was adjudicated as the best actor in drama in year 1988. Roshan was born on 21st March 1975 had dated with actress Chthurika from year 2001 to 2013 thereafter married Ridma Perera in year 2017 is now a proud father of a son still a toddler. Although Roshan possessed innate aptitude for acting with his mother’s influence he had never thought then of creating a career for himself as an actor as music was his obsession then His passion for music continued after leaving ...
Nov 28, 2021
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Articles, Sunil Thenabadu
Tagged Dharmaraja Abhinandana Award, Dharmarajah College, Lester James Peries, Mallika Pilapitiya, Presidential Awards, Roshan Pilapitiya
Lester James Peries the Emancipator of Sinhala Cinema-By D. B. S. Jeyaraj Source:Dailymirror Renowned Sri Lankan Film Maker Lester James Peries passed away three years ago at the age of 99. Among the many who paid homage to the Maestro at that time was Asoka Handagama who is one of the two brightest directorial stars in the Sinhala film firmament of today. (The other is Prasanna Vithanage). Asoka used a reference by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky to highlight an interesting comparison between Gogol and Peries. Asoka Handagama was quoted then in a news story on Lester James Peries in “The Hindu” written by its Colombo correspondent Meera Srinivasan: “They say that Dostoevsky once said ‘we all come out of Gogol’s Overcoat’. The same way, we all came out of Peiris’s ‘Rekava,’” Handagama told The Hindu. The impact and influence of Nikolai Gogol on the “golden age” generation of Russian writers was ...
Film Director Mrs.Sumitra Peries (wife of late Lester James Peries) celebrates her 87th birthday – Kumar de Silva (of ‘Bonsoir’ fame) and his daughter dedicates a cover version of the song ‘Ganga Addara’ to her on her birthday – sent to eLanka by Neranjan de Silva Film Director Mrs.Sumitra Peries (wife of late Lester James Peries) celebrated her 87th birthday on 24th March 2021. Kumar de Silva (of ‘Bonsoir’ fame) and his daughter who have known the Peries family for around 35 years, decided to dedicate a cover version of the song ‘Ganga Addara’ to her on her birthday. Mrs. Sumitra Peries was the director of the film of the same name. Ganga Addara – Anarkali and Kumar Sumitra Peries – Birthday presentation On the morning of the 24th (on her birthday) Kumar and I visited Mrs. Peries, sang Happy Birthday and she cut her birthday cake. The video of ...
Mar 26, 2021
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Articles, Sinhala songs, Sinhala Videos
Tagged Lester James Peries, Mrs.Sumitra Peries, Neranjan de Silva
