Shashi Wijendra

Shashi Wijendra was born on 11 November 1959 in Kandy and is a Muslim by birth. He completed primary education from Badulla Dharmadutha College and secondary education from Zahira College Gampola.{{cite web |url=http://gossip.hirufm.lk/37533/2019/09/shashi-wijendra.html |title=A stingy lover of Sinhala cinema of the late 80s |publisher=Hiru FM |accessdate=23 January 2020}}

He first entered stage dramas under Tamil producer. His stage name was "Shashi Quintus". However, he was unable to read and write Tamil. Therefore, he used to translate the dialogues into Sinhala and started to act. After few months, he quit from acting and started to write stage plays. He produced the play Sahajatha and continued for more than 50 shows.

In 1983 he left the country and went to Dubai. After two years he returned to Sri Lanka. Haneefa joined the cinema in 1985 with the film Obata Diwura Kiyannam directed by Sunil Soma Peiris and produced the film along with Anoja Weerasinghe. It was a Super Hit and became the highest grossing Sri Lankan film in 1985. Then Shashi became a star in one night. He used the stage name "Shashi Wijendra" in cinema. Since then, he acted in many popular commercial films such as Amme Oba Nisa, Shakthiya Obai Amme, Uthura Dakuna, Cheriyo Captain, Obata Pamanai Adare, Wana Bambara, Okkoma Rajawaru, Raja Daruwo, Sinha Raja, Bambasara Bisaw, Soora Veera Chandiyo and Vijay saha Ajay. Most of his films are commercially successful and passed 100 days in theatres. In 1992, he won the award for the most popular actor at Sarasaviya Awards.{{Cite web |title=Road to Prestige 1964-2018 |url=http://archives.sarasaviya.lk/2018/07/12/?fn=sa1807111 |access-date=2021-01-07 |website=Sarasaviya}}

His brother Auff Munawer joined the cinema with Shashi and changed the name to Ranga Wijendra. He later became a film producer and director.{{cite web |url=http://praja.lk/සිංහල/අවුෆ්-හනීෆා-ශශී-විජේන්ද්/ |title=Ausuf Hanifa Shashi Wijendra becomes Auf Hanifa and disappears from Muslim artists |publisher=praja.lk |accessdate=23 January 2020}} The two had even announced their removal from the mosque because of their departure from the Muslim community. Later he converted to Muslim again with his brother after it was reported that due to pressure from the Muslim community.{{cite web |url=https://dinanadakuna.blogspot.com/2013/09/17.html?m=0 |title=Shashi Wijendra comes out as a Muslim after 17 years |publisher=dinanadakuna |accessdate=23 January 2020}} He and his brother quit from cinema at the peak of their career.{{cite web |url=http://gossipsreader.blogspot.com/2017/04/auff-haniffa.html |title=Here's what you can do now to change your name |publisher=gossipsreader |accessdate=23 January 2020}} His last film was Putha Mage Sooraya directed by Ranjith Jayasinghe screened in 2011.

Wijendra married a Sinhala woman in 1996 who later converted to Muslim with the name Shaheena. The couple have four sons and one daughter. In 1996, Haneefa left Sri Lanka and went to Malaysia. He returned to Sri Lanka in 2013 and Participated TV Programme on Sirasa TV. It was his first public appearance after 17 years. He is currently a successful businessman who runs a mahogany project on Dambulla Road, Matale.

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• [https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/liyanage-amarakeerthi-12-may-2019/ බෙග් මාස්ටර්ලාගේ සංස්කෘතික විශ්වය සහ ආගමික අන්තවාදය]

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Category:Sri Lankan male film actors

Category:Living people

Category:1959 births