Sudath wins two TV awards

Award winning filmmaker and teledrama director Sudath Mahaadivulwewa bagged top two awards at the recently held State Television Award ceremony. Sudath won the Best Documentary Award and Best TV Advertisement for the year 2007. Sudath has been involved in both creative advertising and film making for almost fifteen years in addition to his journalistic career in a national newspaper.

Sudath began his career as an advertising copywriter, and worked with many internationally known agencies. He moved into 'alternate journalism' becoming an art editor for the controversial Lakdiva newspaper. These experiences, and his subsequent attendance at a film appreciation course in the Film Institute of Poona, in India, led him to concentrate on social and national issues in his cinematic work. In his first television drama series, 'Wood and Fire' (Dande Lu Gini) he explored the root cause of the ethnic conflict which has devastated the country over the last thirty years.

This was a landmark television series at the time and drew much critical attention. In the epic television drama series 'Vanaspathy' he discussed environmental issues and the cultural disintegration caused by environmental destruction.

Set around Sri Lanka's Sinharaja forest one of the few remaining evergreen forests in the world, the tele film focused on the adverse changes that took place under foreign colonization in a society which had lived in harmony with nature for over 2000 years.

In his third tele-drama series, 'Manukakapura', he tackled the subject of environment again, making people aware of the problems confronted by society due to environmental pollution.

Sudath's first 35 mm film was a documentary based on the Gypsy community of Sri Lanka, the 'Ahikuntikayas'. It narrated their lifestyle, customs and culture from birth to death in an innovative shooting style. It has represented Sri Lanka at several foreign film festivals.

He continues to work in the advertising industry and is now one of its leading directors of creative commercials, winning many industry awards in the process. His first feature film 'Sudu Kalu Saha Alu' (Shades of Ash) won much critical acclaim.