Dr. Diongu Badaturuge Nihalsingha (known as D. B. Nihalsinghe, 27 May 1939 – 21 April 2016)[1] was an accomplished Sri Lankan film director, cinematographer, editor, producer.
He is the only Sri Lankan who has been conferred Life Fellowship of the Society of Motion picture and Television Engineers USA, the oldest film organisation in the world, established in 1915.
[2] Nihalsinghe was an accomplished student leader as Head Prefect and as Sergeant of the cadet platoon at Ananda college and originally hoped to join the army.
After leaving the University, Nihalsingha got an opportunity to enter the film field when a friend of his father offered him a job as a cameraman for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Colombo which he took.
[3] After graduating from the University of Ceylon with a degree in Economics, Nihalsingha began his career, winning the Most Promising Filmmaker award for his documentary Bhakthi at the Cardiff International Film Festival in 1965.
To offset foreign domination of Sri Lankan theatres (80 percent), Nihalsingha launched a series of initiatives which unleashed the suppressed demand for domestically produced films.
In 1979, Nihalsingha left the State Film Corporation and formed the Tele-Cine Limited with the help of Hemasiri Premawarne and Chandra Seneviratne.
As CEO of Tele-Cine for 16 years, Nihalsingha directed and pioneered the first television drama series in South Asia, Dimuthu Muthu, starring Devika Mihirani and Amarasiri Kanlansooriya.
In Kuala Lumpur, Nihalsingha trained several hundred Malaysian young people in all facets of film and television production.
"Public Enterprise in Film Development-Success and Failure in Sri Lanka", by Trafford Publishing, British Columbia, Canada.