Titus Thotawatte
Titus Thotawatte | |
|---|---|
| File:Titus Thotawatta.jpg ටයි මාමා (TI MAMA) | |
| Born | Emmanuel Titus de Silva April 17, 1929 |
| Died | October 15, 2011 (aged 82) |
| Occupation(s) | film director, screenwriter and editor |
Titus Thotawatte (born Emmanuel Titus de Silva on April 17, 1929 in Borella) was a Sri Lankan director and editor. He made several popular and technically skilled Sri Lankan action movies in the 1960s and 1970s and later developed Sinhala children's programmes. Thotawatte died on October 15, 2011 in Colombo.[1]
Early life
Thotawatte was born the youngest of three children with two older sisters. He attended Ananda College in Colombo and studied art under J.D.A. Perera and Stanley Abeysinghe. Subsequently he went to Matara Technical College.
Career
Thottawatte joined Lester James Peries and Willie Blake [2] in making Rekava in 1956 as editor.[3] It was an attempt to make a truly Sinhala movie to contrast with the Southern Indian copies in vogue.
Thottawatte struck out as a director with Chandiya in 1965 The film starred Gamini Fonseka in the first villain role of Sinhala Cinema.[4] Other early films include Kauda Hari (1969), Thewatha (1970) and Haralaksaya (1971).[5]
In 1980, Thotawatte wrote and directed the popular children's movie Handaya [5] which was awarded the Best Picture at the Sarasaviya Film Festival.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he dubbed English cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Doctor Doolittle into Sinhala for Sinhala audiences. These continue to air on Sinhala Television channels. Thotawatte also created puppet characters like Eluson.
When The National Media Awards took place for the first time in Sri Lankan History, three Gold awards were made to veteran journalist D. F. Kariyakarawana for his contribution to newspaper journalism, Vijaya Corea in honour of his contribution towards the upliftment of Broadcasting media over a long period of time and Titus Thotawatte, the veteran film maker for his contribution to the TV media in Sri Lanka.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1956 | රේඛාව [Rekava] | Film Editor |
| 1960 | සංදේශය [Sandeshaya] | Film Editor |
| 1962 | රන්මුතුදූව [Ranmuthu Duwa] | Film Editor |
| 1964 | ගැටවරයෝ [Getawarayo] | Film Editor |
| 1962 | ධීවරයෝ [Dheewarayo] | Film Editor |
| 1965 | චණ්ඩියා [Chandiya] | Director, Screenwriter, Film Editor |
| 1965 | පරසතු මල් [Parasathu Mal] | Film Editor |
| 1966 | සාරවිට [Saravita] | Film Editor |
| 1967 | සොරුන්ගෙත් සොරු [Sorungeth Soru] | Film Editor |
| 1967 | වසන්ති [Vasanthi] | Film Editor |
| 1968 | පුංචි බබා [Little Baby] | Film Editor |
| 1969 | කවුද හරි? [Kauda Hari?] | Director, Film Editor |
| 1969 | බඩුත් එක්ක හොරු [Baduth Ekka Horu] | Film Editor |
| 1969 | හන්තානේ කතාව [Hanthane Kathawa] | Film Editor |
| 1970 | තෙවත [Thewatha] | Director, Screenwriter, Film Editor |
| 1971 | හාර ලක්ෂෙ [Four Lakhs] | Director, Film Editor |
| 1974 | සිහසුන [Sihasuna] | Director, Film Editor |
| 1974 | සාගරිකා [Sagarika] | Director, Film Editor |
| 1975 | සිකුරුලියා [Sikuruliya] | Film Editor |
| 1976 | මංගලා [Mangala] | Director, Film Editor |
| 1977 | මාරුවා සමඟ වාසේ [Maruwa Samage Wase] | Director, Film Editor, Eddie |
| 1979 | හඳයා [Handaya] | Director, Film Editor |