Somaratne Dissanayake
| Somaratne Dissanayake | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Sri Lanka |
| Occupation | Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Chairman |
| Years active | 1997–Present |
| Website | www |
Kalasuri Somaratne Dissanayake is a Sri Lankan film director, screen writer and a producer. He is the president of the Film Makers Guild of Sri Lanka (FMG). He still holds the record of the most popular film (Suriya Arana) in the history of Sri Lankan cinema. He won the Peace prize of Chicago International Children's Film Festival and bronze award for Independent Theatrical Feature Films at Worldfest Houstan for his debut film, Saroja (2000). In 2007, He received Presidential award for directing Samanala Thatu (2006). He is also the recipient of the “Peoples Award” as the People’s artist of the country for last five consecutive years.
Somaratne Dissanayake studied science subjects in school, and obtained the first degree from London University in Medical Radiography. He migrated to Australia in 1978, and while practicing in the medical field, did the post-graduate studies in performing arts, and obtained M.A.degree (performance directing) from Sydney University in 1997.
He obtained the PhD (Honoris Cuasa) in cinema from the university of Performing Arts, Colombo in 2010.He gave up the permanent residency and citizenship in Australia, with the highly lucrative medical profession in view of making films in the motherland, Sri Lanka.
All of his films have won many international awards in various world festivals, interestingly, his films are not only artistic successes, but also commercial successes, as he is in a habit of breaking his own box office records every time with a new film.Dr. Somaratne Dissanayake is the president of the Film Makers Guild of Sri Lanka (FMG), which consists almost all the film producers and directors of the country.
He still holds the record by making of the most popular film (Suriya Arana) in the history of Sri Lankan cinema. He is the recipient of the “Peoples Award” as the People’s artist of the country for last five consecutive years.
On January 2015, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC).
His almost all films were critically adjudged by many local and international film festival and won many awards as well.
Often rated as one of the best directors in Sri Lankan cinema, he has directed only 8 films, but all of them were blockbusters and easily passed 150 days.
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