Swarna Mallawarachchi: The Wonder Woman Of The Silver Screen

Celebrating 50 Years In Sinhala Cinema

- Tina Edward Gunawardhana

Achieving cinematic success throughout a career spanning five decades, veteran actress Swarna Mallawarachchi is the ‘femme fatale’ of the Sinhala Silver Screen. Celebrating her 50th anniversary in the celluloid industry, Swarna has played a variety of roles which has showcased the entire gamut of her acting prowess. It was as Soma in Sath Samudura, that Swarna made her acting debut and she was in much demand. After that, Hanthane Kathawa, Anantha Rathriya, Dadayama , Suddilage Kathawa, Kedapathaka Chaya, Sagara Jalaya and Bawa Duka are just a few of her films that helped make Swarna a house hold name amongst cinema lovers in Sri Lanka. Since the 1960s Swarna has won 26 awards, her most recent, A Lifetime Achievement Award by International Festival of Asian Film (FICA) in France. Perhaps playing the toughest role ever, in her personal life, Swarna battled a brain tumour and breast cancer to emerge victorious and continue to be the cinematic icon that she is.

How did you become an actress?

 I saw an advertisement calling for actresses and I applied purely as I wanted to meet the novelist, filmmaker and cultural critic Siri Gunasinghe whose work I greatly admired. I was surprised when I was invited for an interview, I was still in school but I went with the mother of a friend and was extremely nervous. We went by bus to an address in Ward Place, I was sans make up, as I did not know anything about makeup added to that my nervousness was compounded by a temperature.