Styling the star
While Malini was growing as an actress taking on a variety of roles that showcased her versatility, her fashion evolution was largely thanks to Sam Perera, the man behind many of her sleek, elegant and sometimes playful hairstyles and her westernised and bold choice of clothing.
Sam Perera: “She always had a smile”. Pic by Indika Handuwala
The year was 1972 and Lester James Peries’ ‘Nidanaya’ starring Gamini Fonseka and Malini Fonseka had opened in cinemas to rave reviews. In the making that year was a film titled ‘Suhada Pathuma’, which would see Malini co-star with Tissa Wijesurendra, the first of several movies the two would work together in.
“The first time I worked with Malini as her hair stylist as well as her wardrobe stylist was for ‘Suhada Pathuma’. By then she was emerging as a leading heroine in Sinhala films and getting many offers to act,” Sam told the Sunday Times.
By 1972, Sam Perera already had close to a decade of experience as a stylist in Sinhala cinema, having started in 1963 at the age 16, thanks to a chance meeting with the leading movie star of the day Rukmani Devi. “One of my neighbours was acting in a film called ‘Mangalika’ where Rukmani Devi was the lead actress. I used to accompany him to see the shooting every day as I was fond of films and it was on one of those days that Rukmani Devi had a scene where she had to climb through a bush with her beehive hairstyle which came undone halfway through the shot. There was no standby hair stylist, and I assisted her to do up her hair which impressed her and thus began my close association with the cinema industry,” he said.
Many different looks: Malini in Kele Kelle (above,) Baddegama (right), Sakunthala (far right), and in a film with Indian film icon Sivaji Ganeshan (below)
It was this accidental entry into the inner circles of the celluloid world that opened the door for his close friendship with Malini Fonseka. After working together in ‘Suhada Pathuma’, they found they enjoyed working together, and being almost the same age, she was born in April 1947, he in February the same year, they shared a level of comfort essential in their kind of working relationship. Thus, he not only became her regular stylist but also a close confidant and friend.
Styling movie stars was a challenging job in the 1970s in particular with import restrictions on many goods and make-up artists and hair stylists having to depend on a few select shops that sold imported cosmetics/beauty products. It was an era when hairpieces were the rage with beehive hairstyles, curly hair wigs and many other fancy hair styles in vogue.
“Malini had long, wavy hair that almost reached her knees which made styling her hair using hair pieces very challenging. Her natural hair had to be tied up and fastened well first and then the hair pieces or wigs added to create the style that was needed for a particular scene,” Sam said. It meant using bandanas, ribbons, hair clips and other accessories to keep the hair styles in place.
It was mainly for song sequences that directors demanded fancy hairdos and clothes. Shooting outdoors meant working in makeshift places which could sometimes be under the shade of a tree, someone’s home close to where the shooting was taking place or a hurriedly put together privacy screen using a cloth behind which the actors could make a quick costume change.
“When we were on outdoor shooting, the news would soon get out that Malini was shooting in the area and there would always be a crowd gathered to see her. Unlike today, people did not get a chance to see actors in person, and they only saw them on the big screen or in photographs published in a newspaper. Hence any chance to see them in the flesh was a chance they did not want to miss.”
Dressing a movie star in the 1970s too came with many challenges given the shortage of textiles in the country and rationing of material issued per person. “There were days when Malini and I would go to buy material together and stand in a queue. But usually, the wait was not long because the moment they saw her, we were given priority,” he said.
Sam not only dressed Malini but also stitched many of her attractive outfits. The dresses ranged from simple frocks to miniskirts, bell bottom pants to the traditional cloth and jacket and sarees.
One outfit he designed was for a film titled ‘Kele Kella’ released in 1987 where Malini played the role of a jungle girl clad in a tiger print short top and a short skirt. For ‘Baddegama’, Lester James Peries’ adaptation of Leonard Woolf’s classic novel ‘Village in the Jungle’, Sam had the task of not only styling Malini as she transformed from the girl in the flush of youth at the start of the film to an aged haggard woman at the end, but also other actors in the film including Vijaya Kumaratunga who had to have his hair tied into a bun for the role. Arthur C. Clarke who portrayed Woolf in the film also had his hair styled by Sam.
For the film ‘Neela’ (1977), Malini took the bold but reluctant decision to wear a two-piece swimming suit for a song sequence shot at the Intercontinental (now Kingsbury) hotel pool. “She had turned down an earlier film as she had to parade in a swimming suit as a participant in a beauty pageant in one scene but for ‘Neela’, the director insisted that she wear one and she did, though reluctantly. She was always fearful her audience would turn against her as they identified her more in traditional roles. After the release of ‘Neela’, there were some adverse reactions from her fans,” he recalled.
On a personal level, her dress sense was modest and conservative but on screen she was a trendsetter. “Malini could carry off any dress I made for her, be it a western outfit for the saree or the osariya. She was a natural beauty and stood out in a crowd no matter what she wore or how many people were around her. She had the most captivating smile, and it was not only for the camera. Even behind the camera, she always had a smile on her face,” he said.
Their close friendship over the years also meant that Sam was often a shoulder to cry on for Malini as she navigated the often-complicated life of a movie star. “She was kind-hearted, sensitive and would get hurt very easily. There were tears at times, but she found it difficult to be angry with anyone for long,” he said.
From Sam’s album: Malini and Vijaya Kumaratunga at Sam’s wedding and Sam with Malini and Neeta Fernando
During the seventies and eighties, the era described as the golden age of Sinhala cinema, Sam worked almost entirely with Malini and though they worked together less frequently after that, they continued to collaborate and worked together in her last film ‘Monara Vilak’ shot two years ago and still awaiting release.
For Sam, and the few others who had the privilege of being a close friend of the Queen of the Sinhala cinema, her passing has left a void that cannot be filled. But the memories remain fresh in his mind as he recalls time spent together, be it shooting for ‘Kele Kella’ in the jungles of Trincomalee or the weeks spent in the arid shrub jungles of Hambantota during the filming of ‘Beddegama’.
Malini Fonseka’s public persona is known to many, but few knew intimately of her life away from the glamorous world of cinema, of her personal struggles, her heartbreaks and numerous other challenges she faced. Sam Perera had the privilege of being among the few.
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