‘Golden Peacock Award went missing 25 years ago’

4 May 2018 06:45 pm

Amidst widespread claims and media reports that the Golden Peacock Award of Dr. Lester James Peries had been stolen from his residence a few days ago, a senior member of his film team said the award that went missing was a Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Dr. Peries from India.

“There is a misconception that the prestigious Golden Peacock award that Dr. Peries received for his celebrated film Gamperaliya had been stolen. In fact, this Golden Peacock Award went missing 25 years ago after the demise of the film’s producer Anton Wickremasinghe. The Golden Peacock award for Gamperaliya was in the custody of the late Wickremasinghe who also lived down Dickman’s Road. But since his demise in 1993, the award went missing mysteriously,” said Mr. Upali Perera who was a close confidante of Dr. Peiris was also his assistant director in almost all his films.

“To the best of my knowledge I can say that this Golden Peacock Award was never in Dr. Peries’ home,” he said. (RU)