Berty Seneviratne (16 September 1916 – 22 February 1967 බර්ටි සෙනෙවිරත්න), popularly known by stage name Shanthi Kumar was an actor, filmmaker and choreographer in Sri Lankan cinema.
He studied as Trinity College, Kandy, and mastered wrestling, rugby and football during school period.
[4] Berty's younger brother Richard Herbert alias Herbie Seneviratne was also a popular actor in early Sinhala cinema.
[3] During his life in India, he learned Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Urdu, Malayalam, Telugu and Bengali.
He once joined a well-known circus troupe in India and toured all the Indian states where he performed as an actor.
[4] In 1943, while working as the manager of the Great Eastern Theaters in Bombay, he had a desire to go to Sri Lanka and direct a film.
[3] However, he did not know the Sinhala language therefore wrote an English screenplay based on the Saliya Ashokamala story in the history of Ceylon.
[4][3] Later in 1947, with the help of Mohammed Gauss, Michael Sannas Liyanage and Sir Chittampalam A. Gardiner, Berty made Sri Lanka's first talkie film Ashokamala.