BHUMINDA
Heart for Lankan arts
Bhuminda Karunatilake who is domiciled in England for the past 24 years, has always been in touch with Sri Lankan arts and artistes, earning a name for himself as a credible events organizer who gets down popular Sri Lankan artistes to Britain for special events.
‘During the initial days in England I worked for a Sri Lankan radio channel in the UK. I was an ardent music enthusiast from my school days at Ananda College, Colombo. That background helped me broadcast a onehour programme every week. I even got down artistes from Sri Lankan for this programme,” said Bhuminda. Bhuminda started organising musical shows in England from 2006, starting off with a concert by Bathiya and Santhush. I joined Old Anandians in England and organized shows together with them. “We organized Victor Rathnayake’s ‘Sa’ concert and also Sunil Edirisinghe’s ‘Sandakada Pahana’. In England, Dinner dances have an edge over musical shows. There are more than 40 past pupil associations linked to Sri Lanka, but only the Ukbased Old Anandians organize Bakmaha Ulela for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The others organize dinner dances only. I have held various positions in the Old Anandian outfit. For the past two years I was its president. We have joined other past pupils associations and organised successful shows too.” “My passion for music has been growing since my childhood. I have done a few songs of mine that were set to tune by Suresh Maliyadde. I was in Sri Lanka recently in connection with a song penned by Dr. Asela Wijesundara. My children were born in Europe but I have inculcated in them our Sri Lankan culture. They are into arts and films. We may come down to settle in Sri Lanka in the future but I wonder if my children would do so. Though we live thousands of miles away from Sri Lanka our hearts and souls are deeply routed in our motherland,” he said.
“We organized Victor Rathnayake’s ‘Sa’ concert and also Sunil Edirisinghe’s ‘Sandakada Pahana’. In England, dinner dances have an edge over musical shows. ”