Sadda Vidda Rajapakse Palanga Pathira Ambakumarage Ranjan Leo Sylvester Alfonso (born 11 March 1963) (රන්ජන් රාමනායක), popularly known as Ranjan Ramanayake, is a Sri Lankan actor, film director, singer, script writer and retired politician[1] who appeared in a number of Sinhala language films.
He is the youngest in the family of two children, son of Simon Alfonso, District Inspector at Sri Lanka Railways Department.
He added 'Ramanayake' to his name as a reciprocation to filmmaker Somaratne Ramanayake, who helped him in establishing his film career as a lead actor.
Recently, he has taken more control over his commercial film roles working as a director and screenwriter on the popular Parliament Jokes, One Shot and Leader, breaking box office records[7] with these films and becoming one of the most successful[peacock prose] leading actors and directors of Sinhala cinema.
Ramanayake confirmed that he did call Dilka Samanmali's father and complained that his daughter held biased viewpoints which she expressed during her show.
[21] Ramanayake's telephone conversations with former CID director Shani Abeysekara and other high-profile figures including judges were leaked in the media after the police took custody of them.
[22] Several other telephone conversations were leaked by the police to the public as well and the recordings suggested that Ramanayake used the law in unlawful manner to benefit his government.
[23] On 12 January 2021, Ramanayake was sentenced to 4 years of rigorous imprisonment on the basis of contempt of court regarding his comments on the corruption of the judiciary.