Features
A celebrity…herself
In fact, she is a celebrity, herself, with several firsts to her credit, and one that generally turns out to be the-talk-of-the-town is her RFCC (Raffealla Fernando Celebrity Calendar).
What is so special about this calendar is that it features well-known celebrities, from different industries, lighting up the 12 months.
The RFCC 2023 calendar was launched on January 11th, at a five-star venue, in the city, amidst a gathering of distinguished invitees, celebrities, etc.
Raffealla loves thinking outside the box and is currently working on another calendar, in collaboration with the agency Hashtag media, called DBL 2023, (Dynamic Business Leaders 2023).
She says this calendar will feature the best ranked business leaders of Sri Lanka. She also mentioned that she will be publishing her very own photography book, called the ‘Survival Diary’, where she will be talking about mental health issues, in an abstract way, through photography and poetry.
To many of us, here and the world over, 2022, wasn’t the best of years – for many reasons – but for Raffealla, 2022 was full of surprises, and the highlights, last year, included celebrating the 10th year anniversary of RFCC and taking it to the international scene.
“We were able to share the calendar with top notch creative individuals, around the world, like in India, Italy, the Maldives, Malaysia and England”, says Raffealla.
She did 28 workshops, last year, to share her knowledge with students, from different parts of the country. The workshops were about photography, fashion, styling, self-grooming, strategic thinking, innovative leadership, creative concept development, etc.
Well, these are some of Raffealla’s other highlights, in 2022…
* Working with leading brands, on big campaigns, where her work was seen on multiple hoardings, all around the country.
February, and that’s my month, as seen in the Raffealla
Fernando Celebrity Calendar 2023
* Directed her first music video – a Hindi cover song, sung by Chethana Ketagoda. The original song is from the Hindi movie, Rehena hai tere dil main’, and was sung by Bombay Jayshree.
* Was featured on the global platform EAT MY NEWS, alongside global icons, such as Virat Kohli, Priyanka Chopra, Dipanita Sharma, Garima Goel, Mayank Gandhi, Emily Swallow, Lindsey Coffey, and many more.
* Got her international photography license, and also her youth leadership certification (from India), and styled music videos, including ‘Nane’, by Umaria Sinhawansa, and ‘Mage’ by Kanchana Anuradhi.
* Did her first virtual international talk show for Malaysia, Singapore and India.
* Won a special jury award from the International Photography Awards 2022 New York.
* Worked with Jacqueline Fernandez for the ‘Cirkus’ movie promotions, as a photographer.
Was featured in Filmfare and also successfully completed some projects, in Bollywood, and worked on a short fusion fashion film, in Mumbai.
On a personal side, Raffealla says she lost 16kgs (for a healthier lifestyle), and also completed 1000+ days of meditation.
I’m now trying to visualise what the year 2023 would have in store for this very enterprising individual…better known as Raffealla Fernando.