Prasanna Vithanage

Biography

Born in 1962, Prasanna Vithanage became involved in theatre on leaving school. He translated and directed Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man" in 1986, and Dario Fo's "Trumpets and Raspberries" in 1991. In 1992, he directed his first film "Sisila Gini Gani" (Ice of Fire). It won nine OCIC (Sri Lanka) Awards including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress. Four years later in 1996 was his second feature "Anantha Rathriya" (Dark Night of the Soul), which he wrote and directed. It was based on Leo Tolstoy's last novel "Resurrection". It participated in several international film festivals and won a Jury's Special Mention in the First Pusan International Film Festival. The film also won all the main awards at the 1996 Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards (affiliated with FIPRESCI) including awards for Most Outstanding Film, Best Director and Best Screenwriter. "Pawuru Walalu" (Walls Within), his third feature in 1997 won the Best Actress Award for Nita Fernando in her role as Violet, at the 1998 Singapore International Film Festival. It even won ten out of eleven awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards. His fourth feature "Purahanda Kaluwara" (Death on a Full Moon Day) of the same year, 1997, which he wrote and directed was produced by NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation). It won the Grand Prix at the Amiens Film Festival. Initially banned by the minister in charge of film industry, it was released after a yearlong legal battle. It was given the release under the supreme court verdict. Since it has become one of the most successful film in the more than half a century history of cinema in Sri Lanka. Prasanna Vithanage completed "Ira Madiyama" (August Sun) his fifth film in 2003. It went on to win many international awards and was featured prominently in the world festival circuit. In 2007, Vithanage co-produced the hit film "Machan" a comedy about a group of working class con artists posing as a handball team, directed by "The Full Monty" producer Uberto Pasolini. "Machan" premiered at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008. It was shown widely all over the world winning 11 international awards. 2008 also saw the world premiere of Prasanna Vithanage's sixth feature film as director, "Akasa Kusum" (Flowers of the Sky) in Pusan, Korea and screened over forty film festivals to wide acclaim winning numerous international awards. "Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka" (With You, Without You) is his seventh feature. His feature debut Documentary "Silence in the Courts" was the first Documentary film which had a theatrical run in Sri Lanka, despite being initially banned from public screening by the Colombo District Court of Sri Lanka. His historical drama film 'Gaadi - Children of the Sun' (2019) won Cultural Diversity Award at Asia Pacific Screen Awards and ran for 98 days theatrically in Sri Lanka. 'Paradise' (2023) is his first Indian language film in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Sinhala. 'Paradise' had its World Premiere at the 28th Busan International Film Festival 2023 and won the Kim Jeseok Award.