Rathnayake Arachchilage Somapala, popularly known as Somapala Rathnayake, was a Sri Lankan actor, composer, lyricist and a renowned musician.
21 Facts About Somapala Rathnayake
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Somapala Rathnayake was popularly known as Rathnayake Veda Mahaththaya, was an apothecary and sang "noorthi gee," a type of Sinhala folk songs.
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Somapala Rathnayake was educated at Kadugannawa Junior School and then attended to Kadugannawa Maha Vidyalaya for secondary education.
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One of his elder brothers, Victor Somapala Rathnayake is a renowned musician in Sri Lanka.
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Somapala Rathnayake's daughter Chandani is a dancer and a vocalist.
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Somapala Rathnayake's elder son Jayantha Rathnayake was a renowned musician and composer.
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Somapala Rathnayake's younger son Lelum is a musician and singer who worked in a musical band.
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On 6 April 2020, Jayantha Somapala Rathnayake died at the age of 52 while receiving treatments at Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama.
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Somapala Rathnayake worked in the job for only one month.
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Somapala Rathnayake met Mary during music classes at Heywood academy.
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Somapala Rathnayake died on 18 July 2017 at the age of 69 while receiving treatments.
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Somapala Rathnayake started to play cello under the guidance of M K Rocksamy and then from Miss Joyce at Ceylon Symphony.
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Somapala Rathnayake became the only cello artist in the preceding years of 60s and 70s in every film.
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Somapala Rathnayake joined cinema as a backing violin player under Khemadasa for the film Hanthane Kathawa directed by Sugathapala Senarath Yapa in 1969.
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Somapala Rathnayake's composed the popular song Kawuruda Kawuruda Dan Lokko in that film.
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Somapala Rathnayake was the music director for many films directed by Gamini Fonseka such as Uthumaneni, Sagarayak Meda, Koti Waligaya and Nomiyena Minisun.
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Somapala Rathnayake was the music director for all the films directed by Dinesh Priyasad including, Demodara Palama and Peralikarayo.
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Somapala Rathnayake had to compose music for Hindi tunes in certain Sinhala films such as Jaya Mangalam Suba Mangalam song sung by Jothipala for the film Peralikarayo This song was the last film song written by Karunaratne Abeysekera.
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Somapala Rathnayake was awarded the Sarasaviya Award for Best Music Director for the film Ekada Wahi directed by Parakrama Jayasinghe.
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Somapala Rathnayake composed music for several television serials such as Sannaliyane and acted in the serial Kiri Kandulak.
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Somapala Rathnayake composed the most number of Christian songs as a Buddhist.