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| Sunday, 13 July 2003 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Personality plus Upul Jayasinghe On a musical journey
Determination, gratitude and honesty and being a teetotaller are the pillars of success for Chairman and Managing Director of Nilwala Group of Companies Upul Jayasinghe. Today he owns one of the most successful cassette businesses in the country among other businesses and plans to move into manufacturing and marketing consumer products. His sole ambition is to make a Lankan product a household name around the globe. Family Jayasinghe hails from Matara. His father was Principal of Matara Nilwala Vidyalaya while his mother stayed at home to look after him and his two sisters. "I studied at Rahula College, Matara upto my Ordinary Levels and moved to D.S. Senanayake College for my Advanced Level examination where I was selected to follow an NDT course at the Moratuwa University in 1984." First love Though he studied science subjects, his first love was music and his favourite singer was H.R. Jothipala. "I wanted to produce a cassette during my university days, but did not know how to get about it. I went and met Mr Jothipala and explained my situation. I told him that I can find the finances, but that I do not know how to do it. He gave me all the instructions and support. I collected about Rs 100,000 and did a cassette of H.R. Jothipala. It sold more than 50,000 copies, but I did not get a profit because people played me out. "This was around 1984 and there was a monopoly in the cassette producing business. Though I did good productions, I was always fooled as I did not have the experience or a background in marketing. My studies also took up my time." First job Jayasinghe completed his studies and started working as an executive at the Elastomeric Co in 1988, but in mid-1989, he called it a day and left his desk job without informing anybody even family and friends. Turning point
"In 1992, I met young Namal Udugama at the Ceylon Studio. He was helping his brother, a singer, with a duet. I instantly knew that he had a promising future and asked him whether he liked to do a cassette. He agreed and the cassette 'Samuganne ne' changed my whole life. The first cassette sold more than 300,000 copies and so did the other two cassettes of Udugama. He became popular and Nilwala Entertainments became a household name among the music loving public," Jayasinghe said. New trends "I have introduced new singers such as Shashika Nisansala, Lakshman Hewavitharana and Krishantha Erandaka and talented music directors who have taken Sinhala music to greater heights. We also did a cassette with Sunflowers and the late Gunadasa Kapuge as well as introducing 'rapping' to Dayaratna and Amara Ranatunga songs." The company presently enjoys a market share of 60 per cent while 80 per cent of the popular singers are with them. Jayasinghe said: "The secret of this success is that we pay them well. In most instances, we pay more than the agreed amount if the sales are good". Diversification He has also printed a paper called Sinama Sakvithi and published books of Deeman Ananda ("According to what I have gathered, these books were a craze among schoolchildren during the late 1960s and 1970s"). Awards Jayasinghe won the award for the most popular producer of cassettes from Rasa Publications in 1997. He won the International Star Award from Geneva last year and the International Award Actualidad 21st Century Leader in Prestige and Quality Europe 2003. The ceremony was held in Madrid in February while the World Quality Commitment Award was won in Paris last month. Future "I want to move into producing consumer goods such as food items and one day make at least one product known across the globe. I have already started off in a small way and plans to start mass marketing in the near future," said a confident Jayasinghe. (SG) ********************* Fact File Name : Upul Jayasinghe |
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