There is no one to remember the first woman Thavamanidevi

There is no one to remember that the first woman who went from the island to act in the Madras film industry, as heroin as early as in 1936, was Thavamanidevi who came from the then high society of Jaffna.





K Thavamani Devi, coming from a Jaffna Tamil family: the first film artist who went from the island of Ceylon to Madras Presidency to act as heroine right in the first film in 1936. But a Ceylon Today feature’s perception of the two-way traffic and what is ‘Sri Lankan’ was restricted to Bhanumathi singing a Sinhala song in 1958 and Malini Fonseka acting with Sivaji Ganeshan in 1978.

Ernest Macintyre