The CID was once widely known as the “secret police”, and the very mention of the CID’s infamous “Fourth Floor” was enough to send chills down the spine—not only of rogues and suspects, but even of ordinary people.
During the period of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s government, an individual reportedly jumped from the Fourth Floor of the secret police headquarters, causing considerable disturbance and public concern.
Later, during Dudley Senanayake’s UNP government, several members of the Police and Army were arrested on allegations that they had been involved in an attempt to overthrow the government through a coup. Among those detained were Corporal Thilakawardena and L.P.P. Podiappuhami, alias Dodampe Mudalali. Both were taken to the Fourth Floor for interrogation. During questioning, they reportedly jumped from the 4th floor and died by suicide.
These incidents contributed to the Fourth Floor acquiring a particularly sinister reputation in Sri Lanka’s political and security history—a place whose very name evoked fear and suspicion far beyond the confines of the criminal underworld.
The very mention of being summoned to the Fourth Floor was enough to cause panic—not only among wrongdoers, but even among innocent people. During the 1970–77 period, under the government of Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the celebrated cinema icon Gamini Fonseka was summoned to the Fourth Floor for questioning. The reason, it was widely believed, was his political allegiance to the United National Party (UNP).
Gamini was a staunch UNP supporter, and the fact that Sri Lanka’s most popular film star openly identified with the UNP was apparently intolerable to Madam Bandaranaike and her United Front government. The harassment he experienced because of his political choice later inspired him to create the film Sagarayak Meda (“In the Midst of the Ocean”), which was intended as a political lesson for Madam Bandaranaike and her government.
Gamini produced Sagarayak Meda after the UNP returned to power in 1977. Once in office, the UNP government moved to deprive Madam Bandaranaike, the former Prime Minister and leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), of her civic rights. In opposition to this decision, the SLFP mobilised artists and intellectuals to exert pressure on J.R. Jayewardene’s government. One of the methods adopted was a petition signed by prominent artists. W.D. Amaradeva and Nanda Malini were among those who signed it.
Following Nanda Malini’s death, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga wrote on Facebook:
“At the moment Madam Sirimavo’s civic rights were annulled, Nanda stood among the singers whose voices were silenced on radio for opposing it. While some retreated before state repression, Nanda, fearless and unwavering, stood firm for her convictions…”
It is true that Nanda was barred from radio after signing the petition against the annulment of Madam Bandaranaike’s civic rights. Yet it is equally important to ask whether either J.R. Jayewardene’s or R. Premadasa’s governments sought to deny her rightful place at the Sarasaviya Awards or in presidential honours.
The civic-rights decision was taken in 1980, and Nanda opposed it that same year. Nevertheless, during J.R. Jayewardene’s presidency, she won the Sarasaviya Award for Best Female Vocalist in 1980 for her singing in Monarathenna. In 1981, she won Best Song for Siribo Aiyya. In 1982, she was honoured as Best Female Vocalist for Vajira, followed by recognition in 1983 for Yasa Isuru and in 1988 for Saharave Sihinaya.
The Presidential Awards, introduced during J.R. Jayewardene’s presidency, tell a similar story. At the inaugural ceremony in 1980, Nanda won Best Singer for Monarathenna. In 1981, she was named Best Female Vocalist for Siribo Aiyya; in 1982, for Sathara Peranimithi; in 1983, for Yasa Isuru; and in 1984, for Sivuranga Sena.
This inevitably raises a question: if Nanda Malini was subjected to systematic UNP repression, as Chandrika suggests, how did she continue to win the country’s most prestigious artistic awards, year after year, during UNP rule?
The answer becomes even more striking when one considers who presided over these ceremonies. J.R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa, Ronnie de Mel, Ananda Tissa de Alwis and Gamini Dissanayake were among the prominent UNP figures associated with these occasions. Nanda accepted awards from these very leaders.
At the 1982 Presidential Awards, she received the Best Female Vocalist award from Prime Minister R. Premadasa. In an interview with veteran artist Lucien Bulathsinhala, she said:
“This truly gives immense courage. It gives great courage to artists. For in every field of art, recognition is scarce. Thus, to be honoured at such a royal level is a source of pride and dignity for all artists…”
She made those remarks immediately after receiving the award from Prime Minister Premadasa.
Since 1980, she won Sarasaviya and presidential awards while on the UNP stages, at Premadasa’s Gam Udawa festivals, Lalith Athulathmudali’s Mahapola platform, and Gamini Dissanayake’s Swarnabhoomi stage—where other skilled and popular singers always performed. During the eras of J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa, the one who repeatedly claimed honours on these stages was none other than Latha Walpola. At the request of J.R. and Premadasa, she sang “Shrini Vibhushitha Lanka Bebale” at UNP May Day rallies.
Nanda continues to win the Best Female Singer’s Award; can’t we give it once to Latha?
If they so desired, J.R. or Premadasa could have made such a request to the organisers of the Sarasaviya and Presidential Awards, but they did not make such a request.
During the J.R. Jayewardene and Premadasa administrations, Latha Walpola, popularly known as the “Nightingale of Heladiva,” also performed at UNP May Day rallies at their invitation. Yet the awards for Best Female Vocalist continued to go to Nanda Malini.
Then, in 1987, Nanda launched the Pavana concert series, delivering one political message against the UNP government. The songs of Pavana expressed sympathy with, and were widely interpreted as providing justification for, the JVP’s armed struggle.
When the Premadasa government intensified its campaign against the JVP insurrection, Nanda sought safety in India. Yet when she returned to Sri Lanka, her first public appearance was at the Vanitha Viththi Women’s Awards organised by Wijeya Newspapers, where she received an award from First Lady Hema Premadasa. A photograph of Nanda receiving the award from Hema subsequently became controversial.
While Nanda Malini and Sunil Ariyaratne were in India, President Premadasa himself recited the lyrics of Sunil’s song, sung by Victor Ratnayake—“Saru pasa dileyi pudina goyamak sema”—in an appeal to JVP cadres to abandon violence and join in rebuilding the nation.
Dr Gamini Kariyawasam, who served as Director General of Independent Television Network (ITN) during Premadasa’s presidency, recalled in 2024 that Nanda hosted a children’s programme, Suwanda Padma, while he was at ITN. According to him, State Minister A.J. Ranasinghe ordered him to remove Nanda from the programme. Kariyawasam said he informed President Premadasa, who instructed him to continue engaging her.
Another ITN Director General, Janaka Mallimarachchi, recalled that A.J. Ranasinghe threatened dismissal when Nanda’s songs were broadcast, but that President Premadasa intervened to ensure that her songs remained on air.
Television was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1982, and on the very first Sinhala-language broadcast, Amaradeva and Nanda Malini performed Muni Siripa Simbimine.
What, then, was the extent of the UNP repression against Nanda Malini that Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga referred to?
In the 1999 elections, thugs allegedly attacked the home of popular singer Rukantha Gunathilaka and his wife Chandralekha, cutting Chandralekha’s hair, forcing urine into Rukantha’s mouth and vandalising their home for performing on stage in support of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s campaign.
In the same year, actress Anoja Weerasinghe’s farm in Monaragala was set on fire because she appeared on Ranil’s political stage.
Neither Rukantha nor Chandralekha had produced anything comparable to Nanda Malini’s Pavana that could be described as a sustained artistic challenge to Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government.
Had Nanda Malini performed Pavana during Chandrika’s presidency rather than during the UNP era, today she would have no hair, and her house at Wijayaba Mawatha would stand as a pile of ashes.
