Vasagam: A DoP par excellence

Remember yesteryear super hit Sinhala movies like Chandiya, Athma Pooja, Allapu Gedara, Dheewarayo, Sri 296, Sigiri Kashyapa, Thewatha? These movies had shattered box office records running to packed houses for months especially in the fifties and sixties.

There is one common factor that made these movies so special and that is their cinematography.
The Direction of Photography of these hit movies were handled by none other than yesteryear cinematographer the late A. V. Vasagam.

The late Vasagam’s daughter Shivani  Vasagam (now Wedanayake) who was Miss Sri Lanka in 1995 joined Daily Mirror Life Impulse to evoke colourful memories of her celebrity father.

“My father was the cinematographer of some top Sinhala movies. He turned director with the Tamil movie ‘Vadai Katru’ in 1977. Then he joined BBC London where he was involved in a several film documentary. Then he migrated to Canada where he continued to make films in French. His last feature film was ‘Beneath The Skin’ which represented the New York Film Festival and won three major awards,” said Shivani who was the 4th runner up in the Mrs. World contest.

Vasagam studied cinematography and filmmaking at JC Institute - Bangalore, RK Studios – Bombay and Television Francais – Paris.

Besides serving as cinematographer at Vijeya Studios Hendala and Ceylon Studios Colombo, Vasagam also served at K and H Films, London.

“After winning the Miss Sri Lanka contest in 1995, I represented Sri Lanka at the Miss Universe world competition in Namibia, I was placed 22nd from among 82 countries. My father was a passionate film man but he never forced us to join the industry. Yet I was offered acting openings in local and Indian movies then. But I declined those offers since my main objective was to be a successful model and eventually   become an entrepreneur. After marriage we started our own web designing company and I am now into real estate business too,” said Shivani.

“My father was the cinematographer of some top Sinhala movies. He turned director with the Tamil movie ‘Vadai Katru’ in 1977.

(Pix restoration courtesy: Dayan Witharana Studios)