Biography
Dolewaththe Appuhamillage Thisura Naveen Jayathilaka (born December 4, 1997; Kegalle, Sri Lanka) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. Born into a Sinhala Buddhist family, Thisura is the only child of Nimali Herath, a Samurdhi manager, and the late Chandrananda Jayathilaka, a lieutenant colonel in the Sri Lankan army who was killed in action 19 days after Thisura's birth.
Thisura received his basic education at Kegalu Vidyalaya, Kegalle, from 2003 to 2016. Initially, he pursued studies in bio-science with the intention of becoming a doctor. However, due to struggles with chemistry and physics subjects, he switched to arts. He successfully completed his schooling and then enrolled at the National School of Business Management (NSBM Green University) to study interior design for higher education. During this period, he began to suffer from depression, leading him to drop out after the first semester in 2017. In the same year, he joined the Catwalk Model Academy with aspirations of becoming a model. Soon he quit modeling too.
In 2018, Thisura starred in a short film titled "Shoes," directed by Kavindu Millagala, one of his classmates from advanced levels. This marked his first involvement in any film project. The following year, Thisura began studying at the Sri Lanka Film School (now known as Colombo Film School) under the guidance of his psychiatrist. Since then, he has written and directed two short films to date: "The Message" (2021), in which he also starred, and "Black Rose" (2022). His films are characterized by their surreal stories, dream-like visual imagery, featuring nameless characters, and exploring deep psychological themes such as death, faith, relationships, identity, trauma, mental illness. existentialism and morality.
