Professor Wimal Dissanayake is one of the leading scholars of Asian cinema and Asian communication theory. He had his early education in Sri Lanka and obtained his doctorate from Cambridge University, England, and did his post-graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been the recipient of Fulbright and Rockefeller Fellowships and was invited to be the Wei Lun Distinguished Professor at the Chinese University, in Hong Kong. He has been invited as the keynote speaker at numerous academic conferences in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He was for many years the Senior Fellow at the East-West Center, Hawaii, and the Head of its Film Program. He was also the professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Professor Wimal Dissanayake has been associated with the Hawaii International Film Festival from its inception until 1995 and was in charge of the Film Symposium. Professor Wimal Dissanayake is a bilingual poet; he publishes poetry in his mother tongue, Sinhalese, and in English. He has also been awarded an honorary D.Litt. for his scholarly work. He has written a large number of books on cinema and cultural theory which have been published by Oxford, Cambridge, Duke, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois University Presses and Routledge Publishers, and Penguin.His notable works include: ‘Ashes of Time’(2003), ‘Sholay, A Cultural Reading’(1992), ‘Self and Colonial Desire: Travel Writing of V.S. Naipal’ (1993), ‘Raj Kapoors Films: Harmony of Discourses’ (1988).