History of Sinhala Cinema - 1

One of the pretty interesting areas when it comes to quizzing is “Arts, Literature and Entertainment”, though personally for me it’s one of the least preferred areas.

In this article I’ll be focusing some of the important highlights of the Sinhala Cinema. The key highlights since the very first Sinhala film was produced are captured through the article.

There is a whole lot that we can discuss on this topic, thus I thought of breaking this into few sections when posting. So here goes the first post. Hope you will enjoy.

• Directed by Jyotish Sinha, the very first Sinhala film in the history of Ceylon was “Kadawunu Poronduwa”, which was produced in 1947. The film was produced by S.M.Nayagam of Chitra Kala Movietone, while the music composing was done by Narayana Aiyer.

• Even though it is popularly held that ‘Rekhava’, made in 1956 by pioneer director Lester James Peries, was the first Sinhala film to be shot completely out of studio, it was really the film "Gambada Sundari", made in 1950 which was the first film shot outside studios.

• The first Sinhala film to be produced without a song was Gamperaliya, directed by Sir Lester James Pieris (1964). The producer Anton Wicremasinghe was awarded the Silver Peacock at the New Delhi International Film Festival for Gamperaliya.

• “Ranmuthu Duwa” was the first colour full-length Sinhalese language film to be produced in Sri Lanka (produced in 1962). The film was produced by Shesha Palihakkara and directed by Mike Wilson, who also made his debut as a feature director. Editing was done by Titus Thotawatta, while music was composed by W.D. Amaradeva the Great.

• W.A. Silva’s novel “Kalae Handa” was the first Sinhala novel to be produced as a film.