Herbert M. Seneviratne

Herbert was born on 25 July 1925 in Kahawa, Galle, Sri Lanka. He was educated at Siddhartha Central College Balapitiya. His childhood was not pleasant as his older brother was constantly hostile to Herbert. One day, he ran away from home and grew up in the shadow of his aunt, Emily Gunathilake. When he went to Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Balapitiya, he took the lead in cricket tournaments and later received a scholarship to study at the Siddhartha English School for free. After that Herbert, who grew up in aunt's home in Colombo and entered Mahabodhi College, Colombo. He died on 7 June 1987 in Kotte at the age of 61. ==Career==

While studying at Mahabodhi, Herbert came across an art-loving friend, Marcus Perera, who was the brother of popular songstress Chitra Perera née Somapala. He started writing songs for Chitra along the way. His first song wrote was Lalitha Kala Opa Karana which was sung by Chithra and P. L. A. Somapala. Among the movie songs he wrote, all the songs he wrote for the film Kele Handa were extremely popular such as "Mawila Penivi", "Anna Sudo Ara Patawala", "Ko Sepatha Me Sansare". He later co-starred with Rukmani Devi in the films Dosthara (1956), Siriyalatha (1957) and Daskon (1962). In 1965, he made dual roles: Charlie and Sena Galpatha in the blockbuster film Handapana directed by W. A. Silva. In the film, he also composed several popular songs: "Aloke Pathura", "Piduru Sevikala Pelpathe", "Oba Nathi Me Bima" and "Aetha Ahase Nega" as well as produced the film. In 1970, Herbert played a military captain in the film Senehasa, where he later won the award for the Best Actor at the 1970 Sarasaviya Awards. He was also the director and producer of this film. He later wrote screenplays for two films he directed: Ran Ethana in 1981 and Situ Diyaniya in 1982. He also acted in and composed songs for these two films. ==Filmography==