In 1939 while at the school, she contested for a singing competition conducted for the All Island Health Week. She won the first place from the North Western Province. With the intentions to be a dancer, she learned Kathakali dancing from Shantha Kalayathana in Meeepura under Shanthi Viraj in 1967, Bharatha and Manipuri dances by Shanthi Kumar Seneviratne and Kandyan dancing under Heenbaba Dharmasiri for eight years. She was the first Sri Lankan graduate of Bharath Kathak Dance and started a music company called
Sangeetha Kendra in 1977. The specialty of this institution was that it has been approved as the Colombo Center for the passage of all music examinations in Bhatkanda since 1987. She also became a singer at
Radio Ceylon and sang on
His Master's Voice and Odien gramophone trades as the supporting singer for Premanath Morais and Sunil Premadasa. She has sung the song
A Maha Veera Budu Piya with Premanath Morais which has become a popular song. She also gained popularity as a singer by singing the song
Paana Paththu Nokeruwata for the movie
Daiwayogaya with
Mohideen Baig. Even though she was selected for the film
Prema Tharagaya, she refused to act due to a scene with partial nudity. Her maiden cinema appearance came through film
Puduma Leli under the supervision of
Hugo Fernando at the age of 15. Then she acted in the film
Dosthara where she went India for the film shooting. The she acted many popular films such as
Sri 296,
Surathali,
Nalangana,
Sansare and
Samaje Sathuro. Then she acted along with
Rukmani Devi in te popular film
Daiwayogaya as "Sugala". She acted as Ananda Jayaratne's girlfriend in the song
Siriyame Sara, which was
H.R. Jothipala's first film background song. The highlight of her acting career was the role of "Maggie" in the movie
Parasathumal. During the period as a lecturer, she published a book on Indian dance
Narthana Kala in Sinhala, which was first such in Sri Lanka. ==Filmography==