19 Facts About Nimal Mendis

Nimal Mendis was a Sri Lankan singer and songwriter, and was one of a handful of Sri Lankan musicians to appear on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops.

Nimal Mendis was discovered in the late 1950s by Radio Ceylon, which dominated the airwaves in South Asia in the era.

Nimal Mendis had been involved with music from his early childhood, and has lived for many years in London travelling often to Sri Lanka.

Nimal Mendis has lived at Le Paradis in the Charente, the South West of France, for five years with his wife Ranjani.

Nimal Mendis was married to Ranjani for 33 years until her death in 2010, and has one son, Paulmarie, with whom Nimal Mendis ran Mediaeye Productions.

The devastation of the 2004 tsunami moved Nimal Mendis, leading him to compose a song to aid the victims.

Nimal Mendis has 22 songs published in Britain and has written music for films in Sri Lanka.

Nimal Mendis appeared on the popular BBC television music programme Top of the Pops with his singing partner Sandra Edema in 1968 as guest artists with his song "Feel like a Clown".

Nimal Mendis arranged and produced one other song, "Singing Fish", with electric guitar, bass, and piano.

Nimal Mendis recorded a number of songs in London, mostly of a spiritual nature.

Nimal Mendis made a twenty-minute audio documentary on the Way of the Cross called The Passion Report; another audio documentary called Ferryman focused on the tea estate-worker and the farmer in Sri Lanka, tracing their history from the British colonial period.

Nimal Mendis wrote Bread of Life for the Eucharistic Congress in Sri Lanka.

Nimal Mendis has written several memorable songs for Sri Lankan films, most notably "Master Sir" for the film Kalu Diya Dhahara, where Neela Wickramasinghe performed it over the title sequence.

Nimal Mendis was only seven years old when he accompanied his parents filming in the war zones of the North and East of Sri Lanka.

Nimal Mendis made two audio cassettes, one for Air Lanka- A Taste of Paradise, and the other for the Ceylon Tourist Board- Pilgrim Places of Sri Lanka.

The Nimal Mendis family formed their own enterprise, Mediaeye Music Lanka Ltd.

Together with his son, Paulmarie, Nimal Mendis continued to compile songs, audio documentaries and film material on CD and DVD.

Nimal Mendis wrote three songs for Sumitra Peries' film "Vaishnavee" as well as the background score, which was arranged and produced by Paulmarie.

Nimal Mendis died on 16 April 2015 at a private hospital in Malabe, Colombo, at the age of 81.