Roy de Silva

Chakurartha Devadithya Gardiyawasam Lindamulage Roy Aloysius Felix de Silva, popularly as Roy de Silva, (රෝයි ද සිල්වා) is an actor, Film director in Sri Lankan cinema. He entered the film industry as an actor in 1964 with Sujage Rahasa directed by Palaniyaandi Neelakantan. Arose as an actor, Silva immediately changed the pathway towards cinema direction, becoming one of Sri Lanka's most successful film makers in the Sri Lanka film industry.^[1] His blockbuster movies such as Re Daniel Dawal Migel series, Cheriyo series, Clean Out, and Sir Last Chance were economically successful and made hallmarks in the industry.^[2][3]

Personal life

Born on 30 August 1937, as Chakurartha Devadithya Gardiyawasam Lindamulage Roy Aloysius Felix de Silva, he quickly changed the name into Roy de Silva with onset of cinema career. He is married to fellow Sri Lankan actress 'Sumana Amarasinghe and they have two children.^[4]

Career as an actor

De Silva came to silver screen through Sujage Rahasa directed by P. Neelakantan, who was a famous South Indian director that accompanied with MGR as well. The film starts showing on 24 December 1964 and earned a good reputation by the critics. His success was achieved through the stylish acting, Tamil indian actor like personality and fluency in Tamil. This in turn gave him many opportunities to act under many tamil director ion early days. One notable thing was happened on 1972, when Silva's film Sujeewa surpassed blockbuster gross earning than Edath Suraya Adath Suraya film acted by most famous Sri Lankan actor of that time Gamini Fonseka.^[5]

De Silva's acting career mostly came through directors like Dev Anand, Danny Mariyadasan, M S Anandan, K Venkat, Robin Tampoe, Lenin Morayes, and Cyril P. Abeyratne. De Silva has a rare ability, that can remember long dialogues by reminding first instance.^[6]

• No. denotes the Number of Sri Lankan film in the Sri Lankan cinema.^[7]

As a director

De Silva is primarily director comedy films, which earned him one of Sri Lanka's promising directors in Sri Lanka cinema industry. His first direction came during 1977 film Tom Pachaya, which was co-directed with Stanley Perera. Up to 2016, he directed 33 films, with more than 70 percent of the films easily passed 100 days and reached blockbuster hits.^[8] De Silva's first English film direction came through Its's Matter of Time in 1991.^[9]

As a singer

Apart from direction and acting, De Silva also performed as playback singer in few occasions. His playback singing came through films such as Tom Pachaya, Minisun Athara Minisek and few more.^[10]

References