Sumitra Peries (born March 24, 1935) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and Sri Lanka's ambassador to France in late 1990s. Her most popular film is Ganga Addara and married to a famous film director Lester James Peries.

Biographie

Early life
Sumitra Gunawardena (birth name) was born on March 24, 1935 to a Marxist family known as Boralugoda Gunewardenas in Avissawella. Her father, Henry (better known as Harry) Gunawardena was a proctor in Avissawella and mother, Harriette Wickramasinghe was from a middle-class family. Three of Sumitra's relatives, Dinesh Gunawardena, Geethanjana Gunawardena and Prasanna Gunawardena, are still in Sri Lankan politics today.

When Sumitra was 14 years her mother died. At that time her brother Gamini was five years older and her sister Chandralatha, four years older. She also has a younger brother Ranjith. After the tragedy of their mother's death, Gamini went to the south of France and lived in a yacht with a French painter.

Sumitra began her education in Avissawella, then later enrolled to Visakha Vidyalaya in Colombo and finally joined the Aquinas College Colombo to do the London Advanced Level.

At the age of 20 Sumitra find some amount of money and travelled to Europe by ship to meet her elder brother Gamini there to build her own career there.


Personal life
Sumitra married Lester James Peries on June 19, 1964 at All Saints Church.