Charitha Attalage

Charitha Attalage (චරිත අතලගේ; also spelled Charitha Attalange or Charitha Atthalage) is a Sri Lankan music producer, composer and arranger, born 6 October 1989, known for a run of genre-blending Sinhala singles built around the voices of Ravi Jay and Ridma Weerawardena. His full name is Charitha Rakshitha Attalage, and his work fuses Indian classical foundations with electronica, ambient and contemporary pop.

Early life and training

Attalage was born in France to a Sri Lankan family and grew up immersed in music. As a child he trained as a classical tabla player under the late maestro Wijeyaratne Ranatunga, and in his teenage years moved into electronic keyboard, drum machines, synthesizers and MIDI production. From 2010 he pursued formal music study across Singapore and the United Kingdom, later completing a degree in music technology in California. He is now based in Los Angeles.

Career and breakthrough

Charitha Attalage built his reputation as a producer who treats a Sinhala pop single like a full studio production, layering acoustic, classical and electronic textures rather than a single backing track. In 2017 he began releasing a series of singles with Ravi Jay and Ridma Weerawardena that reshaped the sound of contemporary Sinhala music online. The track “Kuweniye” became his breakthrough and a wide social-media hit, and led to the staged production “Kuweni”, which shared a gold award in the audio-visual film category at the WOW Awards in 2020.

Signature songs and collaborations

Attalage’s catalogue runs through a tight circle of collaborators. With Ravi Jay he produced and performed Galana Ganga (ගලන ගඟ) and Dura Akahe, the latter built on a lyric by Chandrasena Thalangama. With Ridma Weerawardena he produced Sandawathiye, the nadagam-flavoured Nadagam Geeya, Soya Awa and Sonduru Siththam. He has also worked with Supun Perera on songs such as Radhawani and Kampa Nowan Mahamaya. As Charitha Attalange, his productions are often credited under the singer’s name even when the arrangement is the defining element.

• Galana Ganga
• Dura Akahe
• Sansaraye Ma
• Kuweniye Ma
• Sandawathiye
• Soya Awa

Style and legacy

What sets Charitha Atthalage apart is production as authorship: his arrangements pull Indian classical melody, drum and bass, ambient pads and acoustic instruments into a single cinematic frame. That approach gave a generation of Sinhala singers a distinctly modern, international-sounding home, and his recordings remain heavily streamed across the Sri Lankan diaspora.