Anoma turns ‘Suppadevi’

‘Suppadevi’ is a brave and a heroic character different to the eastern traditional woman’ says Anoma Jinadaree, internationally awarded actress who has returned to fame with her latest role as 'Suppadevi' in the English version of Prof. Sarachchandra's acclaimed theatrical production 'Sinhabahu'.

‘She was very bold both deciding to live with a beast 'Sinhabahu' and also to leave him when it was necessary," says Anoma who says that it is one of the challenging roles she had to ever play in her career. Anoma entered the theatre with 'Hena', stage play produced by Asoka Handagama and later played both in the miniscreen and the silver screen receiving much acclaims for her performances.

She has played in four teledramas including 'Dunhinda Addara' and 'Synthetic Sihina' directed by Asoka Handagama and which were famous for their artistic presentation. She also has starred in three films and for her role in 'Thani Thatuwen Piyabanna' (Flying with one wing' she was adjudged the Best Actress at the Singapore International Film Festival.

However she complained that there is hardly any artistic value in today's teledramas and cannot be even called them works of art."Today the teledrama industry is only a mere business and the teledrama directors have become part of it," she complained.
Starting her career on the stage, she now has gone back to the stage with her latest performance as 'Suppadevi' in the English

version of Sinhabahu produced by Dharmajith Punarjeewa."This is an historical character and the biggest challenge I had was to do the justice to the character of this great woman,’ says Anoma describing her latest role as 'Suppadevi'. It was a role that had to be balanced with singing, acting and choreography blending them together.

‘Voice of Noeline Honter and fine choregraphy by the producer provide some ease to perform it’ she said. When questioned her about interpreting the role of traditional woman of 'Suppadevi' in the English production Anoma said that it was the way how Punarjeewa show the role of Suppadevi.

"However this type criticism can be made by the original playwright Prof. Sarachchandra himself because he was the one who created this role,".