Early life:
Nadeeka is the first child of Stanley Gunasekara, who worked at the Post Office in Nawalapitiya and her mother Thalapatha Gunasekara worked as a school teacher.
Nadeeka and family lived with Thalatha’s parents at Naranwela until she was 3 years old and later moved into Charle’s De Silva flats at Colombo.
According to Nadeeka’s parents, Nadeeka was a stubborn young girl who gets angry with her parents so often. So, parents had to lift and cuddle to cool her down after every childish quarrels she had with them.
Her first school was Udugoda Vidyalaya and it was only for three years before she had to change her school to Uduheenthanna Senadhikara Vidyalaya due to his father transfer to new post office. Due to these transfers Nadeeka had to change her school frequently and Her thrid school was in Gampola. When her father got a transfer to Monaragala in 1970, she was admitted to Pushpadana Ladies College in Kandy. Nadeeka last school was Bandrawela Vishaka College where she had to stay in a boarding place with her younger sister.
Nadeeka's mother is also a film actress also a teacher. Nadeeka parents were separated due to her mother acting career. So her dad initially did not like Nadeeka to be an actress. However he blessed her to continue to act advising her to do what ever she does in right manner.
She did her Advance Level exam in Art stream and at that time she was attending Mahamaya girls college in Kandy. Surprisingly, she has never engaged in sport at school and claims she did not even sing a song at school.
First Film and Acting Life:
Nadeeka appeared in the Shinahala Movie called, “Kanchana” in 1980 and it was her first step to the cinema. Nadeeka acted in 13 films as a leading role, produced 2 films and appeared in 32 films. Her latest film in 2012 was “Senasuru Maruwa” a successful comedy film.
M.A. Sangadasa chose her to act in Kanchana film when she was still in A/L classes. However, Nadeeka managed to pass A/L with good results which enable her to enter Kelaniya university. As her university was closed few months she managed to appear in few other very good movies like Thani Tharuwa Vajira Biththi Hathara, Chanchala Rekha under new talented directors who was making a change in Sinhala cinema.
Her Real Name:
Though popularly known as Nadeeka Gunasekara, her real name is Disanayaka Wijesuriyage Sandya Darshani Gunasekara. Siri Kularathna has given her this screen name as she appeared in her first film when she was a student.
The First Award she won:
1987 was a remarkable year for her as she graduated from Kelaniya university and she won her first award as up coming actress of the year at Lux film award ceremony.
Nadeeka's Family Life:
Like most other actresses of that time, Nadeeka main priority was her acting career and delayed her marriage. Still she does not worry about that delay as it allowed her to gather enough life experiences to become a better mother and a wife. Her husband is Mr. Suren Hapuarachci who is a businessman and the couple has a daughter. Nadeeka claims that they have dedicated their lives now to daughter Thenuki betterment. As a result she now appears in films very rarely and instead she runs a garment business dedicating more time to family and house work.
