Dr. Dharmasena Pathiraja

BIOGRAPHY

Dharmasena Pathiraja is a celebrated Sri Lankan filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, lyricist and producer. He made his feature film directorial debut with the 1974 drama Ahas Gauwa (One League of Sky), which upon its release took Sri Lankan cinema by storm and was a critical and commercial success. Since then, he has directed several internationally acclaimed films in a career spanning over four decades, notable among which are Eya Den Loku Lamayek (How to Be an Adult, 1975), Bambaru Avith (The Wasps are Here, 1978), Para Dige (Along the Road, 1980) and Mathu Yam Dawasa (Some Day in the Future, 2002). Besides these, Dharmasena has also helmed several critically acclaimed television shows and documentaries like Pura Sakmana (based on The Lady with the Dog), Putting The Last First, Durganthaya (based on Wuthering Heights) and In Search of a Road. In addition to winning Sri Lankan Presidential Award for Best Direction and Best Screenplay multiple times, the venerated filmmaker has also been nominated for prestigious awards at the Moscow International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Singapore International Film Festival. Notable film credits as an actor include Ahas Gauwa (1974) and Soldadu Unnehe (Old Soldier, 1981). Other significant directorial credits include Sakkarang (2015) and the Swaroopa (2017), the latter of which is based on the classic Franz Kafka novella The Metamorphosis.