Balancing diverse professions | Sunday Observer
Sachini Ayendra: Actress, model and entrepreneur

Balancing diverse professions

13 December, 2020

Sachini Ayendra is one of the most dazzling stars on the firmament of the Sri Lankan silver screen. Having made her acting debut over 18 years ago, she is a popular actresses with a massive fan base. This talented actress has now turned business woman and launched her own hair care brand, Ezthara, recently. The launch was attended by many celebrities.

This multi talented personality was born as the youngest child of David Stanley and Thamara Wadasinghe in the ancient, royal capital of Kandy and was bred there. She had her education at a leading girls’ school in Kandy, Hillwood College. As an active member of the student community Sachini Ayendra was the Vice President of The English Literary Society and was also involved with the Young Writers Club, the school choir, the Drama Club and the Interact Club. Swimming was the sport of her choice.

Model

It was as a model that Sachini Ayendra first came into the public limelight. Having taken part in fashion shows at school she competed in a pageant and won the Best Model in Kandy in 2002. This opened many doors for Sachini Ayendra to walk the ramp and appear in TV commercials. Her first TV commercial was for Elephant House and she appeared in an advertisement for a popular soft drink ‘Ride’ manufactured by the company. Sachini Ayendra next appeared in a TV ad for the National Savings Bank (NSB). Called Sthree it won the hearts and minds of Sri Lankan audiences and Sachini Ayendra’s beautiful face was familiar to a vast majority of Sri Lankans. In the commercial, she portrays a carefree girl who indulges in things like playing cricket in paddy fields.

Dialog, Unilever and Nestle are among the major brands which have featured Sachini Ayendra in their commercials.

Sachini Ayendra also conquered the world of Sri Lankan beauty pageants in 2003 by winning the Miss Sri Lanka pageant and represented her country at the 53rd Miss World Pageant. Sri Lanka pageant in Sanya, China.

Actress

Sachini Ayendra made her screen debut in 2002 in Adaraneeya Wassanaya directed by Senesh Bandara Dissanayake. The movie was based on Wassanya Sihina, a novel by Upul Shantha Sannasgala. The movie was released in 2004. Even though it was her first movie appearance Sachini Ayendra’s portrayal of Madhupani Iddamalgoda, a young girl was so successful that it won for her the Signis Award for the Best Supporting Actress in 2004. She was also nominated as Best Supporting Actress for the Sarasaviya and Presidential Awards .

Critics and movie buffs claim that Sachini Ayendra came into her own and gave an outstanding performance in her second film Sankara. Set in rural Thanamalwila, Sachini Ayendra portrayed a village girl, Upamali working in the sugar cane fields and the film was directed by Prasanna Jayakody. It also brought a second Signis Award for the Best Supporting Actress for this talented actress.

Asked how she found working in a rural area Sachini Ayendra said that the first two or three days were difficult but that she soon adapted to it. “Wearing the clothes of a village girl, eating the food of the villagers all contributed towards my attaining the mindset of a village girl. After that it was very easy”.

Among Sachini Ayendra’s other films are Siri Parakum and Nimnayaka Hudukalawa. Suwara, Womb and Thanapathilage Gedera are movies yet to be released. Sachini Ayendra was also the producer of Angara Dangara.

It was in the teledrama Hiruni that Sachini Ayendra made her television debut on Sirasa TV. She played the title role in the drama which was directed by Kumarasiri Abeykoon. Rumassala, Mayadunne, Lochana, Rela bindena Thena, Sihina Wasanthayak and Sherlock Holmes are among the popular teledramas featuring Sachini Ayendra.

She made her stage debut acting in Indu Dharmasena’s for Better or Worse giving life to the character of Sarla.

WCOPA

To Sachini Ayendra falls the honour of being the first Sri Lankan artiste to take part in the World Championship of Performing arts (WCOPA) - dubbed the Olympics of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, USA in July 2016. She won two silver medals and one bronze medal competing in three acting categories, namely ,classical,open and contemporary. Speaking to a local newspaper at the time Sachini Ayendra said: “I am so excited about it and my biggest dream is to win a medal and bring pride to my country”. And she truly did it winning the three medals.

Entrepreneur

Sachini Ayendra broke new ground recently by adding the role of businesswoman to her many faceted life. She launched her own brand of hair care. Asked what led her into this venture she said, “I had problems with my hair. It was falling and a certain product which had natural oils helped me overcome it. I decided to share this with others as it helped me. So, I recreated it and launched it recently”.

She says that marketing her product will be easy due to her large and devoted fan base. “They love me and will follow me. So, it is only natural that they will turn to a product launched by me.” In other words, her acting career will give her business activities a great boost.

Challenges

Sachini Ayendra loves overcoming challenges. With the launch of her hair care product she has being threatened with lawsuits by competitors and other obstacles have been placed in her way. But she does not let these faze her . “Many people know that I have a large following who will readily buy my products and they are afraid of the competition. So, they resort to various tactics some of which are really petty.

Sachini Ayendra is not afraid of calling ‘a spade a spade.’ She is frank and honest and is not afraid to articulate what she believes in and feels. However, her candid comments from the heart have not been welcomed by certain sections of society and she has been verbally attacked on social media and in other ways by those who have misunderstood her or did not see eye to eye with her. Once, she had commented on the issue of skin lightening saying that colourism is not racism. This created an uproar especially on social media and many brick bats were hurled her way. She accepted them with equanimity as was her wont in such instances. Sachini Ayendra had said that it was a matter of opinion and personal choice about the merits and de-merits of light and dark skin. She said that unfortunately, most Asian cultures and even some African cultures do not accept that dark skin is beautiful and therefore the light skinned persons have certain advantages. This leads to the dark skinned and the not so dark skinned people seeking solace in skin lightening.” This is not racism but colourism. Colourism is just a matter of colour, opinion and taste. Personally, I have nothing against colourism and two years ago I endorsed skin lightening.”

Then and now

This actress par excellence says that the movie industry has come a long way from the time she entered and that the present day facilities are excellent and the cutting edge technology available now are superb. However, she says that it is sad that there is a drop in the quality of productions and this must be rectified.

Asked what advice she could give up and coming actors and actresses she said that they must have a passion for the art and be willing to work hard and learn.

Wife and mother

The actress is married to businessman Ishanga Maheepala and they have two daughters, Alyshka (9) and Isharya (6). They attend Musaeus College, Colombo and currently Sachini Ayendra is loaded with work as the girls are at home and having Zoom classes. However, Sachini Ayendra feels that this method is not effective. To the question as to how she manages to achieve all that she has to do she said that meticulous planning and hard work are key to successfully completing her many tasks.

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