John Shiran Dissanayake's first glimpse into film-making may have come at the age of eleven, when his uncle (mother's younger brother), Frank Gunasekera, produced 'Hondama Welawa' co-produced with Sarath Rupasinghe. This film, directed by Lenin Morais starred Gamini Fonseka, Malini Fonseka and Vijaya Kumaratunga.
Spurred by his uncle's cinematic creation, Shiran Dissanayake, as a schoolboy took an immediate liking to Sinhala cinema, and slowly built up his skills and knowledge, and by the age of twenty-two, started producing his own films.
The 603rd Sinhala Film to be released was John Shiran Dissanayake's 'Rajina' directed by Thilak Lakshman Seneviratne and starred Amarasiri Kalansooriya, Shirani Nugera, Linton Semage, Mervyn Jayatunga, Somi Ratnayake, Menike Attanayake, Wijeratne Warakagoda, Somalatha Subasinghe and a host of other celebrated artistes. 'Rajina' was released on 15 February, 1985.
Twenty-three years after the release of 'Rajina', Shiran Dissanayake is yet again ready to venture into the Sinhala Cinema. He has now teamed up with internationally renowned film director/producer, Chandran Rutnam, to make a cinematic creation out of the award-winning novel by Nihal De Silva, The Road from Elephant Pass. The film will be based on the Sinhala translation of the book titled 'Alimankada Sita'.
