This year the Annual Eagle Awards of Excellence were presented to Dr D B Nihalsinha, best known for his contribution to the film industry and renowned musician Rohana Weerasinghe.
This year the Annual Eagle Awards of Excellence were presented to Dr D B Nihalsinha, best known for his contribution to the film industry and renowned musician Rohana Weerasinghe. They received the award from Eagle’s managing director Deepal Sooriyaarachchi amidst much applause.
The awards presentation was made at the company’s Annual Sales Convention, conducted at Waters Edge recently. Eagle Insurance annually selects and felicitates two personalities who have excelled in their respective fields with the Eagle Excellence Award.
The audience listened attentively to the achievements of the two well known personalities who have earned a name for excellence in their fields. They heard about the accomplishments of Dr Nihalsinha who excelled first as a cinematographer and then as a director. He won international recognition when his creation, "Bhakti" was adjudged the best documentary at the Cardiff Film Festival in 1967. His excellent photography and tight editing in "Sath Samudura" became the talking point and won him awards at the annual Sarasaviya film festival.
He has scored many "firsts" in his career - directing the first widescreen film in Sinhala, "Weli Katara", creating the first tele-drama, "Dimuthu Muthu" and the first tele-musical, "Rekha". A study on four state corporations earned him a PhD from the Adelaide University. Back in Sri Lanka he now heads the newly created Audio Visual faculty at the Kelaniya University.
Boasting of a 35-year musical career Rohana Weerasinghe is a household name. Having qualified from the State School of Music, he served as a music teacher, a singer and sitar player before distinguishing himself as a director of film music. With the advent of television he became a household name when he provided music for virtually every tele-drama in the early days.
He holds the record for directing music in the most number of tele-dramas. He has won awards for his creations in film, tele and stage music. He has guided a large number of newcomers to the music scene most of whom are among the topmost singers today.
When accepting his award Mr Weerasinghe commented saying that he greatly values the Eagle Award of Excellence as this award has not been won through a competition, and thus holds a deeper meaning to him since it has been presented to him by a respected global entity which is completely unrelated to his field, in genuine recognition of his contributions to the Sri Lankan music industry.
The Eagle Award of Excellence is a manifestation of the company’s core value – encouraging excellence. Eagle felicitates those who have excelled in their chosen fields and in turn hopes to encourage the Eagle Team with Wings – the company’s sales force to achieve excellence in serving its customers with passion and commitment.
Eagle Insurance launched the Award of Excellence several years ago by recognizing Dr Lester James Peries and Pandit W D Amaradeva in the inaugural year. In successive years Chitrasena and Vajira, Premasiri Khemadasa, Henry Jayasena, Sybil Wettasinghe, Nanda Malini, Joe Abeywickrema, Malini Fonseka, Victor Ratnayake and Professor Sunil Ariyaratne were presented with the award. The presentation of the Eagle Award of Excellence to honour eminent personalities in the field of arts is yet another of the company's CSR initiatives.
-ends-
Notes to editors:
About Aviva
Aviva is the world’s fifth-largest* insurance group, serving over 50 million customers across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific. Aviva's main business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £51.4 billion and funds under management of £381 billion as at 31 December 2008. Aviva is the largest insurance services provider in the UK and one of the leading providers of life and pensions products in Europe. (* based on gross worldwide premiums as at 31 December 2007.)
In Asia Pacific, Aviva operates in Australia, China, India, Korea, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. Aviva’s long-term savings products and services are distributed through a multi-channel network, which includes a direct sales force, insurance intermediaries and bancassurance partners. In February 2006, the Aviva Group acquired a majority stake in Eagle Insurance.