An Enigmatic Icon
FULL FRONTAL BY CHANDRI PERIS
To some she was awe inspiring, to others she was overpowering. Many considered her to be the ultimate ambassador for their specific brand of fashion but there were those who thought that she eclipsed the clothes they had designed. She was coveted for her beauty, she was exploited for her talents, she was shunned for the choices she made, and she was judged. She was loved by her friends and avoided by those who didn’t know how to deal with her. She was difficult, she was confrontational, and she was uncontrollable. She had a signature stare that was arresting and a radiant smile that was enchanting. She was unconventional just as she was unforgettable. She was a force of nature. She was a legend. She was Akushla.
In the mid to late seventies and throughout the eighties our island had a groundbreaking and creative fashion industry that was producing extraordinary designs that were uniquely Sri Lankan. Entrepreneurs such as Ena de Silva, Sakuntala Rajagopal, Soma Udabage, Chrysanthi Fernandopulle, Buddhi Kirthisena and Swanee, were all pursuing their own individuality and creating a dazzling array of fashionable clothing. Batik and tie-and-dye was their chosen forms of expression. The model that many of them used to represent the vibrancy of their creative flair was none other than the sensational Akushla Sellayah.
There was no one else who represented the unpredictability of the batiking process during which the wax cracks and forms its own design whilst colours creep in and out of each other creating beautiful havoc – no one else could tell a story of the involuntary intermingling of colours when a fabric is tied and dyed and left to its own metamorphosis. No one – other than Akushla. She embodied that era of exotic batiks and riotous tie-&-dye to perfection.
At a time when Colombo was full of beautiful models, she stood out for the simple reason that they modelled the clothes, but she told stories about the garments she wore from the narrow confines of the catwalk.
My relationship with Akushla was volatile from the start. Before I started working with and for the fashion industry, she used to jeer at me constantly which made me feel uncomfortable, but others found it to be hilarious! Whenever I used to visit my friends Nedra Vittachi (who was her neighbour) and Mangala Samaraweera (who had his fashion workshop on top of her own apartment) I did my utmost to duck out of the way and not be seen by her. But once I began working as a choreographer for fashion shows I had no option but to face my nemesis. Doing this meant that I had to learn the hard way. She would never obey any instruction for a start, she was never any good at modelling in an ensemble as she railed against the choreography by not following the script and all this resulted in many of us giving in and letting her loose on the ramp, alone. The end result was unquestionably – mesmerising! Before a show she would turn up at a dressing room wearing just her jeans and t-shirt and casually help herself to make up, earrings and shoes that all the other models had carefully laid out to match their outfits. ‘Here – I am taking this ah!’ was all she said, and the others didn’t dare refuse or stand up to her! Was it fear, friendship or for the sake of peace? Only they will know. That said, she would just as easily part with anything she owned too. She was never envious of anyone or greedy for worldly goods and was quite unlike many of the other models who had insatiable cravings for handbags, shoes, dresses and saris etc. Yet she had that special ability to put on any item of clothing that she randomly came across and look absolutely stunning without any effort at all.
Those who knew Akushla have often told me that her nonconformist attitude to life began with the unexpected death of her father whom she adored. This incident in itself changed her from being a brilliant student to a drop out who had an angst against rules and regulations. After leaving school earlier than expected she began moving around with a counterculture cohort that were hooked on flower-power, free-love and rampant Americanization. This Colombo based ‘Woodstock’ generation who identified with sex, drugs and rock and roll, gave her a sense of belonging even though she was never known to be involved with taking drugs per se.
One of her first and notable outings was as a dancer in the final scene of Jesus Christ Superstar which was produced by Nimal Gunewardene and designed and choreographed by Seneka de Silva. The straight-laced Colombo public were shocked, scandalised and thoroughly titillated by this outrageously provocative production that was way ahead of its time. After this event, Akushla’s star began to rise. She became the most sought-after model in town and even tread the boards from time to time. She appeared opposite Rohan Ponniah in E. F. C. Ludowyke’s play ‘He Comes From Jaffna’ which was directed by Lucian de Zoysa. When Rupavahini celebrated Shakespeare Day by producing their very first series of English plays, her cousin Richard de Zoysa directed an excerpt from ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in which she played Katherine to his Petruchio. The performances that they sparked off each other were consistently described as remarkable by all who saw them. Sadly, the VHS recording of these performances have been stolen and are lost to posterity!
Prior to this, film director Manik Sandrasagara took a gamble on her capabilities as an actress and cast her in ‘Rampage’ (1978). Her searing screen presence was noticed by Hollywood, and she was soon invited to star opposite Stacy Keach and Ursula Andress in ‘The Mountain of the Cannibal God’ (1978) catapulting her to being one of the few Sri Lankan actresses to be seen by an international audience. Her fame had begun to spread so widely that John Derek cast her opposite his wife Bo Derek and Richard Harris in’ Tarzan the Ape Man’ (1981). The somewhat restrained Sinhala cinema suddenly latched on to what they were missing out on and began making a distinct effort to use her talents in movies that were catered for a local audience. Gamini Fonseka directed her in two separate movies. The first of these was ‘Bandura Mal’ (1981) which was followed by ‘Re Manamali’ (1982) in which she starred opposite Ravindra Randeniya. In Robin Fernando’s adaptation of Charlie’s Angels titled ‘Suraduthiyo’ (1985) she appeared alongside a host of stars from the Sinhala screen.
Her meteoric rise to fame was short-lived. This was not due to any external constraints but entirely down to the circumstances she faced and the choices she made about the life she wanted. Having a child outside of marriage marked the beginning of Akushla’s withdrawal from public life. Facing the responsibilities of motherhood with no recourse to a steady flow of finances led to a life that become increasingly difficult for her. She was greatly supported by many of those who were close to her but when she went on to have a second, a third and then a fourth child, albeit from the same man whom she loved passionately throughout her life, even this support system gradually weaned off.
She battled through these very tough times and made a success of bringing up four fine children who are exemplary human beings in their own individual ways. Some of us remember how she used to put three of them on her little Honda motorcycle – one standing in front of her holding the handlebars, the eldest behind her with the third sandwiched between them, being taken to their nursery school in Borella.
She used to periodically pinch the two behind her to make sure that they didn’t fall asleep halfway during the ride! She also made some bad decisions in the process of trying to find enough finances to bring up her children. She used her friendship with Mangala to pressurize him into hiring her as a model for some fashion shows when she was seven months pregnant! Mangala who was much too kind to refuse, included her in the line-up of models who were representing the final year design students from The institute of Aesthetic Studies. To say that the student who was allocated Akushla as his clothes horse had an unresolvable dilemma, would be to put it mildly!
Society was and will always be - deeply judgmental and in Colombo this was more evident than ever. People who were extremely critical of Akushla appearing seemingly topless in films, cast aside their prudery, they even overcame their own prejudices about her having children outside of a marriage but what most of them could not accept was the fact that she became a fanatical Pentecostal Christian. Her zeal was such that she even refused medicines when she was seriously ill. To some, that was just a step too far!
Even as recently as last month conversations among those who knew her well had a scattering of phrases which I recall. ‘Brainwashed’ they said. ‘She should have’, ‘she could have’, ‘if only she had’, ‘Aiyo what a waste…’. These regrets were genuinely expressed by those who envisaged her life through their vision of what they wanted and expected of her. But as a woman who was independent, headstrong and totally committed to her faith, Akushla had made her own choices and didn’t falter. She never made excuses for the path she had chosen. She strode into the storm of her own making, with the same fearless grace with which she had once owned the ramp and none of us are in a position to point fingers at her.
Chris Greet who compered many a fashion show at that time, eloquently announced each and every model by their name with an appropriate adjective that described them. He used an array of words including beautiful, alluring, tantalising, bewitching etc but when it came to Akushla, even he was lost for words. All he managed to do was to command the audience to give their undivided attention with a single word before she stepped into the spotlight and began weaving her spell. That word was ‘Silence’!
Akushla’s life resembles a blazing comet that tore across the night sky of our lives like a dazzling shard of the sun trailing fire until suddenly it disappears leaving a trail of stardust behind it. Each and every one of us have our own memories of her etched in our minds and if there is one thing that we can all agree on, it is that she was undeniably - out of this world.
