Paper cuttings

This article dated Feb. 21 1988 (in colour) was published soon after actor-politician Wijeya Kumaratunge’s assassination by a JVP gunman in those dark, distant days of terror in the late 1980s. Wijeya was a left-wing presidential candidate and had a good chance of becoming the country’s next president.



Film actor Gamini Fonseka (article in black and white) voiced his disgust in this Sun newspaper article at the politicizing of Wijeya’s funeral. Gamini himself became a successful politician, though he took to centre-right UNP politics in contrast to Wijeya’s left-wing populism.
Gamini was older and the undisputed No. 1 male star of the Sinhala screen until Wijeya came along. Gamini’s leading position was challenged not just by the arrival of the younger, dashing Wijeya, who had the physique of a Western actor (Gamini worked hard on his physical appearance, but his age was beginning to show by the early 1970s.)Wijeya’s rise was made easier by the dispute between Gamini and the Sri Lankan cinema’s No. 1 female Star, Malani Fonseka, which reportedly occurred on a film set. The two vowed never to act together again (though they did so many years later) and this left a big vacuum, because the Gamini-Malani combination was a sure box office recipe. Thereafter, though, it was Wijeya-Malani and this combination proved to be equally successful.
There was never any ill will between the two men despite this. Both were bigger-than-life characters not given to pettiness.