Prasanna Jayakody

Who is Prasanna Jayakody?

Prasanna Jayakody is a budding Sri Lankan film director. His debut film Sankara, won The Special Jury Prize The Silver Pyramid at the Cairo International Film Festival 2006 and the Best Debut Director Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala 2006.

Prasanna Jayakody was born in 1968 to an artistic family which was strongly rooted in traditional Sinhala values and grew up in a Buddhist environment. He debuted at the age of 21, with Seveneli saha Minissu a stage drama thematically woven around a thoughtful discussion on the reality of life and was a major critical success. He was immediately catapulted into the limelight, projected as the most promising among new entrants. His Teledramas which have won unprecedented number of National Television Awards are a result of work which is loved by the masses of Sri Lanka and honored by the intelligentsia. Visual allure has been his aesthetic trademark. But his great ability to articulate the Sinhala Buddhist ethos is the hallmark of his remarkable career. In this he remains unparalleled among his contemporaries. His maiden cinematic creation Sankara is a deep analytical study of mans inner soul. Just as all his other artistic works, Sankara too is inspired by and deeply entrenched in Buddhist philosophy. Text: Satyajit Maitipe