Sunil Mihindukula

Mihindukula's interest in films began when attending Maris Stella College in Negombo. After graduating, he worked with several media personalities, including Gunasiri Silva, Jayantha Chandrasiri and Prem Dissanayake.^[2] His career in journalism began at the Navaliya magazine, where he wrote articles on art that were edited by Jayantha Chandrasiri. In 1978, he began his career in film journalism with an article for Sakura Magazine, edited by Gunasiri Silva.^[3] Mihindukula continued to work with Silva on his publications and later contributed to Vichithra publications, which was compiled by Prem Dissanayake in 1987.^[4] In 1979, he joined the Lankadeepa newspaper as a featured writer and then joined the national political newspaper Sathdina, which he then wrote articles on literature. In the invitation, editor Wimalendra Wathuregama Mihindukula also joined the film newspaper Piyakaru to write film critiques.^[5]

Mihindukula also wrote articles as a freelance journalist for magazines such as Sinesith.^[1] In 1981, he wrote his first film review for Lankadeepa, which covered Sugathapala Senarath Yapa's film "Induta Mal Mitak".^[6] In the same year, he joined the editorial staff of Desathiya, published by the Government Information Department.^[1] In 1984, he wrote articles for the periodicals Kalpana and Peramaga.^[5]

In 1988, Mihindukula joined the film newspaper Kala. In 1990, he joined as an editor for the cinema page of the Ravaya newspaper and started working as a film writer for Udaya Tennakoon's Thira Tharu. In 1991, he held the post of Publication Assistant at the Social and Peace Center. In 1994, he wrote for the film newspaper Rasa, edited by Ernest Waduge. Mihindukula joined Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake House or ANCL) as a full-time journalist in the mid-1990s and was appointed as the sub-editor of the Dinamina newspaper in 1995.^[7] After that, he then became the deputy editor of the Sarasaviya newspaper and became the chief editor in 2009.^[8][3]

While being the deputy editor of Sarasaviya, he also joined Silumina in 2007 as an editor of the Rasaduna tabloid anthology, which was published with the Silumina weekend newspaper and was compiled by Dharmasiri Gamage.^[2] His column Paryalokaya in the Silumina Literary Supplement covered drama. Mihindukula compiled Rasaduna for over a decade and concurrently served as co-editor of Silumina.^{[citation needed]}

As a film critic, Mihindukula served on the Film Jury at several film festivals and was a member of the Arts Sub-Committee under the Department of Culture and the Teledrama Pre-Monitoring Board. He was also the editor of the film magazine Sadisi, published by the Sri Lanka Film Corporation.^[5] Over four decades, he published more than 1,000 articles on Sinhala cinema and other fields of art in various newspapers.^[9] He worked at Lake House until his retirement from journalism in 2016.^[5] At the invitation of Sarasaviya editor Aruna Gunaratne, he started writing a series of articles entitled "Natyakaruwo Saha Owunge Nirmana" in mid-2016, which were published weekly in Sarasaviya following his retirement earlier that year.^[4][2]

Mihindukula received the Presidential Cinema Award for his contributions to cinema and journalism at the Presidential Film Festival.^[10] On 29 December 2005, he won the Cyril B. Perera Memorial Cinema Literary Award at the SIGNIS Award Ceremony, held at the Elphinstone Theatre,^[11] Colombo 10.^[1][3] He also received the Cine Media Vision Film Writing Award and a Raigam Tele'es Merit Award for his screenplay for Roopawalokanaya National Television at the Raigam Tele'es.^[5][12] On 4 May 2017, an event at the Mass Media Ministry auditorium acknowledged Mihindukula’s contributions to cinema and cinema literature.^[13][14] During this event, the book Sunil Mihindukula Cinema Sahithya Sampradana, edited by Prof. Samantha Herath and writer/poet Buddadasa Galappatti, was released.^[10][15]