Full name – Hariyathi Umara Zainab Binthy Sinhawansa 

School Attended – Muslim Ladies College 

Birthplace – Colombo 

Your family details – I have one younger sister and two elder brothers

Your present family– My lovely husband and my dearest son

What song did you sing for the first time? 

I sang the Atlantic Star song when I was around one and a half years old.My pronunciation might not be correct but that was the first song.

First hit song of yours?

I think the audience and the fans got to know me through the “Kasthuri” song, after that “Wassanaya “ and it was a solo song.

How many songs have you sung so far? 

I started singing at a young age, and since then, I have sung around 150-200 songs.

How many film songs have you done and what are they? 

I did 4 songs as in Dancing Star movie song, Asai man Piyabanna,Feel my love and U Turn.

Have you ever done any other profession?

No, by god’s grace,singing is my first job up to now.

Do you have any other business? 

Yes,I have a vocal academy called ”Umara Studios” and I’m planning to open my own clothing brand too.

How is life going on? 

I think we should say that life is beautiful but our society is as such that thoughts are different,but I’m grateful for the person and the position I’m in today because I’m happy with what I have now.

What was it that you asked God but didn’t get?

Normally, I’m not someone who’s questioning god’s decision but I questioned him once when my son was diagnosed with regression, it’s a part of autism, and autism is a very big word so that’s when I questioned his doings because my son was totally fine until he was two years old, but suddenly he started to forget how to walk and his daily habits but later on I started to accept whatever God gave me and started thanking him, I think that’s how I found happiness more.

According to you, who’s Umara Sinhawansa?

I think Umara Sinhawansa is a simple and sensitive person who wants to lead a normal life, and who is living with the idea that everything happens for a reason.

If asked from Umaria, what would she say about sister? 

As someone who was always with her like a mother.

How do you feel about Umaria’s success and popularity?

I feel so proud of her as a sister because when we were kids, she was so shy and I always had to encourage her but when I see her today, I feel really proud.

As a popular icon in Sri Lanka, you see that whenever women try to bring out their emotions or issues, the society judges and criticizes it, how do you see this? 

I don’t care about anyone’s opinions as far as I take my own life decisions and not only women but men are sensitive too, but according to society’s belief men have a different personality so they express it in a different way. I think being sensitive is totally fine because we face lot of things when we live and if I talk about my experience when we started singing, there were certain rules applied to the industry and attached with the culture but we started breaking those barriers with songs like “Kasthuri” & “Shaheena”and that was not a normal thing but a new thing for a woman. I think as long as it doesn’t harm or hurt anyone, it’s totally acceptable.Crying is not a weakness but a way to handle the situation and it could differ from person to person. So there is no need to blame a woman if she’s expressing her emotions through tears, emotion is what our people lack.

Not as a celebrity but as a mother, you wanted to talk about autism more openly with your son’s condition? What’s the reason for that?

People judge always without knowing the whole story, so behind this popularity there is another story too. People think that this industry is so easy and also I believe that anyone can stay here without having any scandals or issues but we live in a modern era, so we see new faces and they have different opinions about being in the industry but it’s all a lie and I earn money only through my singing skills. So I have already built my image in this industry and I have always kept my family life personal but I started talking about autism openly with my son’s condition because there are mothers who go through with this situation and there will be mothers who would face this in future too, my son started walking when he was 10 months old like a normal kid but suddenly he started showing signs like not responding to situations or thinking too much and he scratched the wall on his 2nd birthday, so we took him to the doctor and reports came this as an autism condition but both me and my husband did not want to accept it, that’s when I started to question God’s doings like I said earlier,I wanted to bring up my son who would face to any situation but this felt like all our dreams were shattering in front of us, later on he started showing more symptoms and at that time we were living in Hong Kong, so me and my son came to Sri Lanka and my husband stayed because our business was there. At first I denied this condition even knowing his condition because I was afraid to tell people that my son has autism and I was thinking what would people say but later on I understood that first of all I have to accept, then I can help my son and handle the situation too, after that he started showing sensitive to sounds, after coming back from shows, I had to stay still when he was sleeping because if I moved a little bit, he would cry for hours, so my only motive was to find how to connect with him, after that I started taking him out to hear more sounds so that he can be familiar to handle whenever he hears a sounds from outside. My husband could not accept it for a long time but later on he did it too, we had issues because of this but after accepting the situation we found peace in us too. So my advice is first accept it,all of us have autistic features but it’s different with people and how it triggers.

We know that communication with autistic features is really hard, so how did you deal with this?

Eye to eye with my son was really hard but I’m a very bubbly person, normally I talk loudly at home, so I started to interact with him like a small kid and behaved as we’re both in same age level, because his two years old mind was like a three months old baby, this sudden change from his was so hard to handle, there was a time when he denied having food, but I knew that I could be with him only if he’s healthy,so I had to feed him forcefully and when others saw this, especially my sister, also blamed me for doing so but as a mother I had to do it.I think acceptance was the hardest thing to deal when you hear that you kid is autistic but I think I did somehow accepting it.