Yashoda Wimaladharma is an award-winning Sri Lankan film and teledrama actress.
Yashoda Wimaladharma was born on October 28, 1970 in Sri Lanka to R. L. Wimaladharma, a Hindi language Professor at University of Kelaniya and Mallika Wimaladharma, a former dancer and school teacher. Her sister Thusitha, now a school teacher, is seven years older than Yashoda.
Wimaladharma attended St. Paul's girl's school in a Milagiriya.
Career
Yashoda made her cinema debut in 1990 from the film titled Gurugedara (Teacher's home) directed by Vijaya Dharmasiri, and also won the merit award for this film at Sarasaviya Film Festival in 1993.
Yashoda hosted her personal website (www.yashodaw.com) on June 18, 2003 the ceremony held at Galadari hotel, Colombo. This was the first ever website hosted by a Sri Lankan actress.
We didn't even know that this child was in the class
Yashoda was a very shy and timid child who kept to herself. She was always observant and had a vivid imagination, two qualities that would help her later on in life as an artiste. During her school days at St Paulís Girlsí School in Milagiriya, her most memorable times were as a girl guide. Regular visits to hospitals and orphanages taught her about the hardship that others endured. With her generous personality, she always enjoyed helping people.
Becoming an acress was a coincidence
She never dreamt of becoming an actress, let alone such a successful one! If not for her uncle, director Bandula Withanage, Yashoda may have followed an academic path like her parents and sister. Withanage invited her to take part in a 12-episode teledrama called ëAtta Bindeií in 1985. Encouraged by her father, but only 15 years old and with no prior experience or training in acting, she took the role.
Her father saw her talent and felt she should continue with acting alongside her studies. She recounts a time during her AíLevels when she had to sit an exam in the morning, go for rehearsals in the evening and have film shoots the next day! Yashodaís life changed drastically after that and at first, she found the fame difficult to handle, being the reserved person she was, but her familyís support helped her get through the stressful times.
I forget myself
The secret to Yashoís success as an accomplished actress is to ëliveí the character in a production. She says, ìYou canít act as someone else or as Yashoda. You have to breathe life into that character and become that person.î In choosing her projects, she picks challenging roles with powerful messages where she can do justice to the character.
Yashoda believes that to be a professional actress, one requires God-given talent as well as formal training. She says that Sri Lanka needs to develop its film industry further to reach international standards.
