Veteran film director, actor and author Dr. Tissa Abeysekera passed away a short while ago. Funeral arrangements will be notified later. Tissa Abeysekara: His capabilities were many
The versatile and outstanding film personality, creative writer and essayist, Tissa Abeysekara passed away this evening after a brief illness. He was the Director of the Sri Lanka Television Training Institute.
Tissa Abeysekara who counts over four decades of service in the Sinhala cinema in the capacities of critic, scriptwriter, director, actor and academic, had also been an able and strong administrator with a vision when he was Chairman of the National Film Corporation from 1999 to 2001. He was honoured with the title of Deshabandu.
Proficient in English and Sinhalese, Tissa began his artistic career as a short story writer - writing in Sinhala, when he was still a schoolboy. His short stories were prominently featured in the ‘Dinamina’ and ‘Janatha’ national newspapers.
Still as a youth he published a collection of Sinhala short stories, bringing him to the notice of Professor Ediriweera Sarachchandra, who hailed him as “an outstanding original voice in Sinhala creative writing who shows promise of developing into a major talent”.
However, a chance meeting with Dr. Lester James Peries in the early sixties lured him to the cinema, where he remained for the next forty years. Tissa developed into the finest and most accomplished screenplay writer, before he was thirty. Among the many scripts he wrote were those for ‘Nidhanaya’ and ‘Welikatara’. And his capabilities in acting were well portrayed by the role he played in ‘Veera Puranappu’ as Ven. Kudahapola Thera.
Having joined the Government Film Unit as a documentary filmmaker, he made over forty documentaries before breaking through as a feature filmmaker with ‘Karumakkarayo’ based on Gunadasa Amarasekara’s controversial novel.
This was followed by ‘Mahagedara’ and then the highly successful ‘Viragaya’ based on Martin Wickramasinghe’s greatest novel, and which was considered ‘unfilmable’. ‘Viragaya’ is considered one of the finest Sinhala films ever made.
Tissa has won many national awards in films, for scriptwriting, directing and acting, and an equal number for his work for television.
In 1996, Tissa Abeysekara turned tables on the local English literary establishment by winning the prestigious Gratiaen Prize for the best piece of Creative Writing in English for that year by a resident Sri Lankan for a novel ‘Bringing Tony Home’.
He has since been writing mostly in English, bringing out another collection of three stories titled ‘In My Kingdom of the Sun and the Holy Peak’. He was an essayist writing on a wide range of subjects both in Sinhala and English.
In the last decade Tissa had built a reputation as a serious writer of fiction; writing in English, not only in Sri Lanka but in the South-Asian region.
He was an active member of the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature, based in Delhi, and had presented papers at a number of literary seminars held in the sub-continent.
Tissa Abeysekara has served on the Boards of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and the Aesthetic Institute of Sri Lanka, affiliated to the University of Kelaniya.
He was also a Council Member of the University of Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo and was a Trustee of the National Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka.
Widely travelled, Tissa Abeysekara has represented his country at seminars and film festivals, and was a jury member at the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2002.
Tissa Abeysekara who counts over four decades of service in the Sinhala cinema in the capacities of critic, scriptwriter, director, actor and academic, had also been an able and strong administrator with a vision when he was Chairman of the National Film Corporation from 1999 to 2001. He was honoured with the title of Deshabandu.
Proficient in English and Sinhalese, Tissa began his artistic career as a short story writer - writing in Sinhala, when he was still a schoolboy. His short stories were prominently featured in the ‘Dinamina’ and ‘Janatha’ national newspapers.
Still as a youth he published a collection of Sinhala short stories, bringing him to the notice of Professor Ediriweera Sarachchandra, who hailed him as “an outstanding original voice in Sinhala creative writing who shows promise of developing into a major talent”.
However, a chance meeting with Dr. Lester James Peries in the early sixties lured him to the cinema, where he remained for the next forty years. Tissa developed into the finest and most accomplished screenplay writer, before he was thirty. Among the many scripts he wrote were those for ‘Nidhanaya’ and ‘Welikatara’. And his capabilities in acting were well portrayed by the role he played in ‘Veera Puranappu’ as Ven. Kudahapola Thera.
Having joined the Government Film Unit as a documentary filmmaker, he made over forty documentaries before breaking through as a feature filmmaker with ‘Karumakkarayo’ based on Gunadasa Amarasekara’s controversial novel.
This was followed by ‘Mahagedara’ and then the highly successful ‘Viragaya’ based on Martin Wickramasinghe’s greatest novel, and which was considered ‘unfilmable’. ‘Viragaya’ is considered one of the finest Sinhala films ever made.
Tissa has won many national awards in films, for scriptwriting, directing and acting, and an equal number for his work for television.
In 1996, Tissa Abeysekara turned tables on the local English literary establishment by winning the prestigious Gratiaen Prize for the best piece of Creative Writing in English for that year by a resident Sri Lankan for a novel ‘Bringing Tony Home’.
He has since been writing mostly in English, bringing out another collection of three stories titled ‘In My Kingdom of the Sun and the Holy Peak’. He was an essayist writing on a wide range of subjects both in Sinhala and English.
In the last decade Tissa had built a reputation as a serious writer of fiction; writing in English, not only in Sri Lanka but in the South-Asian region.
He was an active member of the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature, based in Delhi, and had presented papers at a number of literary seminars held in the sub-continent.
Tissa Abeysekara has served on the Boards of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and the Aesthetic Institute of Sri Lanka, affiliated to the University of Kelaniya.
He was also a Council Member of the University of Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo and was a Trustee of the National Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka.
Widely travelled, Tissa Abeysekara has represented his country at seminars and film festivals, and was a jury member at the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2002.
source:- www.adaderana.lk
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