Kalabushana Gajanayake Arachchige Somi Kalani Chandrika Siriwardena (Sinhala: චන්ද්‍රිකා සිරිවර්ධන: born 11 November 1948), popularly as Chandrika Siriwardena, is a Sri Lankan songstress and playback singer.^[1] A pioneer artist in reality musical programs in Sri Lanka, she recorded the songs Midule Mal Sooriya Gaha Mudune, Igillila Yanna Yan and Ranabima Marune in a career that spanned more than six decades.^[2]

Personal life

She was born on 11 November 1948 in Kandy as the youngest in a family with three siblings. Her father, Peter Siriwardena was an accomplished musician and an actor. He worked as a lecturer in music at the Government Women's Training College, Polgolla.^[3] Her mother Srimathi Karuna Devi was a music teacher as well as an actress. She first attended to Primary section of teacher training college and then she completed secondary education at Pushpadana Girls' College, Kandy.^[4] Chandrika has two elder brothers.

His brother Sunil Siriwardena is a singer, lyricist and broadcaster.^[5] He has two sons - Madhumadhawa Aravinda and Dhananjaya Siriwardena. Madhumadhawa is a vocialist and was a controversial politician.^[6] Dhananjaya is a popular actor in cinema, theater and television. He is married to Shashini Siriwardena, a youtuber and singer who previously worked as a cabin crew for Emirates.^[7] Chandrika Siriwardena's niece Dulshara Dasanthi is an influencer and an upcoming singer and actress.

She was married to Anton Alwis, who was a journalist, scriptwriter and lyricist. He also briefly served as a presidential secretariat to the late president R.Premadasa.^[8][9] The couple has one son, Prashantha Udaya and one daughter, Jithendrika. Jithendrika Jayakalani is a Bharathanatyam dancer and has appeared in certain films as cameos. Her husband Anton died on 26 March 2017 at the age of 72, this affected Chandrika deeply.^[10][4]

Career

At the age of five, Chandrika joined Lama Pitiya children's program in Radio Ceylon. She excelled as a Sinhala singer of excellent grade, and a Tamil singer of excellent grade and a classical Singer during her career at Radio Ceylon.^[1] Her elder brother Sunil Siriwardena was famous on the radio as a singer. Chandrika Siriwiwardena's debut radio single was Thalamala Waruna a song by Sunil Siriwardena in which she was featured.^[3] She then sang a song Raththaranin Ran for a song program at Radio Ceylon.^[4] At the age of 18, she went to G. S. B. Rani's 'Tharangani' program where she sang her first popular song Ukdandu Dunnen Upannemi written by Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe and produced by Sarath Dassanayake.^[2]

After completing her education, she went to India and obtained a master's degree from Bhatkhande University with a First Grade Pass.^[3] She majored in North Indian classical music as well as South Indian Carnatic music during that period. After returning to Sri Lanka, she sang the song Viyo Wee Mihimadala for the teledrama Sura Asura.^[4]

Chandrika has rendered her voice as well as acted in many films including, Giju Lihiniyo, Raththaran Amma, Devduwa and Anjalika.^[11] She won Sarasaviya Award for the song Nim Walalla in the film Hithawathiya. She has sung several songs under semi-classical music. Her song Ranabima Marune Sinhalayeknam became an extremely popular song in Sri Lanka.^[4] Chandrika won awards for the films Sinasenna Raththaran in the 80's, the film Hithawathiya and the film Chaya. In the film Chaya she contributed as a choreographer for Sabeetha Perera.^[2] Chandrika mainly focused on playback singing and did not release any music albums during her career, her music is mainly consumed through Sri Lankan radio and is not fully available on modern streaming services.

In 2006, Chandrika joined Sirasa TV for the first season of music reality show Sirasa Superstar. She was a judge for the first few rounds in first season. However, in 2007 she continued to be one of the main judge in season 2. Later in 2012, she joined Derana Dreamstar as a judge.^[1] She has also judged in many other reality shows and is popular for changing the role of women in reality television in Sri Lanka.

Chandrika Siriwardena also worked as a music educator and held her own institute which was defunct during the pandemic. She directed two shows called "gee ran gee" with her student body as the cast of the performance in 2012.

In 2012, Chandrika was honored at 36th SIGNIS OCIC Salutation Festival.^[12] In 2019, she was awarded the Kalabushana award by the president Maithripala Sirisena for her valuable input in the Sri Lankan entertainment industry.^[13][14]

To celebrate her 70th birthday, she performed a solo concert "Ran Tharakavo" on 11 November 2018 at 6.30 pm at the Bandaranaike International Conference Hall which was received with mixed reviews.^[4][2]

In 2021, after a brief hiatus from film, she made her return to acting with the television series on Hiru Tv named Divithura.

Filmography