Shashi Wijendra

Mohammed Auff Haneefa (born 11 November 1959), popularly as stage name Shashi Wijendra ශෂී විජේන්ද්‍ර [Sinhala]), is an actor in Sri Lankan cinema. One of the popular actors in 1990s of Sinhala cinema, he quit from cinema in his peak due to religious matters.

Wijendra was born on 11 November 1959 in Kandy and is a Muslim by birth. He completed education from Badulla Dharmadutha College and then entered Gampaha Zahira College since grade 5.

His brother Munawer joined the cinema with Wijendra and changed the name to Ranga Wijendra. He later became a film producer and director. The two had even announced their removal from the mosque because of their departure from the Muslim community. Later he converted to Muslim again with his brother after it was reported that due to pressure from the Muslim community.

He is married to a Sinhala lady in 1966 who later converted to Muslim with the name Shaheena. The couple have four sons and one daughter. In 1996, Haneefa left Sri Lanka and went to Malaysia. He returned to Sri Lanka in 2013. He is currently runs a mahogany project on Dambulla Road, Matale.

He first entered stage dramas under Tamil producer. However, Wijendra was unable to read and write Tamil. Therefore, he used to translate the dialogues into Sinhala and started to act. After few months, he quit from acting and started to write stage plays. He produced the play Sahajatha and continued for more than 50 shows.

Haneefa joined the cinema in 1985 with the film Obata Diwura Kiyannam directed by Sunil Soma Pieris and produced the film along with Anoja Weerasinghe. He used the stage name "Shashi Wijendra" in cinema and "Shashi Quintus" in theater. Since then, he acted in many popular commercial films such as Vijay Saha Ajay, Uthura Dakuna, Love In Bangkok, Cheriyo Captain and Obata Pamanai Adare. In 1992, he won the award for the most popular actor at Sarasaviya Awards.

He quit from cinema at the peak of his career. His last film was Putha Mage Sooraya directed by Ranjith Jayasinghe in 2011.