Tony Ranasinghe felicitation ceremony:

A career launched with Guiness stout

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Tony Ranasinghe, a much-talked about mature actor of the Sinhala cinema was felicitated on July 31,which date coincided with his birthday.

However, Tony in reality is a man with sober characteristics and though he is, undoubtedly, one of the highly talented actors in the genre of screen giant Gamini Fonseka, he candidly recalled the happy days when he commenced his career in acting at an embryonic stage of the Sinhala cinema, where the shootings were confined to studios.

Hailing from a devout Catholic family in Modera, the religious young Ranasinghe, who practised choir music at the parish church, at one time in his early teens, was toying with the idea of entering into priesthood. With a Mona Lisa smile, Ranasinghe now thinks that it was indeed a right step that he had taken not to enter the Catholic order, as he says it could have done a lot of damage to the Church.

Though Tony Ranasinghe as a young-filmgoer, watched almost all the films screened at the time, he was particularly attracted to the glamorous world of Hindi cinema and its screen heroes like Deelip Kumar and Dev Anand.

Soon, young Ranasinghe like most youngsters of his age, started to imitate American cow-boy movie actors such as Randal Scott and John Wayne and began to dress jeans and checked shirts.

However, recollecting the English movies he watched, Tony Ranasinghe says that the English movie that had a lasting impression on him, though he could not understand a word of it at the time it was screened, was William Shakespeare's "Hamlet," directed by Laurence Olivia and "Julius Caesar".

Both of them were shown to students at the Dela Salle school run by the Christian brothers where Tony studied as a youngster. In his school days, from among the teachers, Rev. Brother Nicolas, whose statue was later erected at Mutuwal, had greatly influenced his youth.

Young Ranasinghe entered into life's fray as a stenographer, at the Department of Government's Electrical Undertakings (DGEU, as the Electricity Board was then known ) at McCallum Road.

It was the long-awaited breakthrough for a film-crazy youngster, when he came across an advertisement in the "Daily News "calling for an actor in a Sinhala film. The advertisement read as "Wanted a leading man for Sinhala Film-apply personally at Bristol Building Today - P. Somasekaran".

P. Somasekaran was the famous film-maker who directed "Sujatha "and "Sada Sulan". There was a long queue consisting diverse personalities, some with beards and others tall or stout. Seeing the large crowd who came for the interview, the hopeless Tony rushed to Colonial hotel and ordered a pint of cold Guiness stout, and went back to find that the place was deserted.

However, he met Somasekaran who called in Tony to the interview. The panel of interviewers consisted of cardinals of the Sinhala film industry, including Kingsley Rajapakse, David Dharmakeerthi and Douglas Kotalawala who later produced the film. Tony asked someone to play with him and Kotalawala volunteered to read the script. After reading a few lines, Tony was selected.

However, this film turned out to be a non-starter. Tony's brother Alex Ranasinghe introduced him to Sirisena Wimalaweera, a pioneer in the Sinhala cinema who selected Tony to act in a movie "Punchi Amma". Soon, shooting commenced under the expert camera of Daya Wimalaweera. However, this film had also happened to be a non-starter as Wimalaweera passed away.

Later on, an enthusiastic Tony heard that Dr. Lester James Peris was to produce a film based on the novel "Gamperaliya". By the time, Tony met Dr. Lester James Peris; he had already finalized the cast.

It was another coincidence that Tony met the dramatist Sugathapala de Silva at Lester's place, thus paving the way for him to be a stage actor. Towards the end of the rehearsals, Dr.Lester Peris, Sumithra Peris and Gamini Fonseka came to the rehearsals and announced that Tony was selected for a minor role in "Gamperaliya".