Orissa Cinema

Oriya comedy serial “Time Pass” is being produced by ETV.

Chief Producer-Sanjay Pathak
Producer-Satya Ratha
Director-Gouri Sankar Das
Writer -Nirmal Nayak
Co-ordinater-Deba Brata Mishra
Production- Jitu, Bijay, Deba Mohanty
Make Up-Addi
Asst. Director- Saroj, Babaji

Artists- Hadu, Choudhary Jai Prakash Dash, Dinabandhu Pandia, Ananta Mishra, Bijay Patnaiak, Panu, Mamuni Mishra, Deji, Rajeswari , Addi

[Click on the images above to see the complete gallery]

From Afar

A weekly column by
Sahasranshu Mahapatra, New Delhi

In a world of filmmaking the allegations of copy right violation and stealing of ideas or concepts are not new. World’s largest film producing industry Bollywood is also not free from this. The latest in the row is the Ram Gopal Verma’s remake of GP Sippy’s superhit ‘Sholay’. Though this kind of allegations are not prominent in Oriya film industry but the recent release ‘Ea Mana Manena’ has drawn attention of many outside theatres for its alleged ‘stolen’ storyline. The producer of this film, Bhubaneswar based Maa Bhavani Productions, has been facing a legal battle against Hyderabad based Prasad Productions Pvt Ltd.

The south Indian production house has accused the Oriya producer of stealing the story idea from its Telugu blockbuster ‘Arya’. At first instance it may seem to be a simple matter of copyright violation against an Oriya producer. But in a broader scenario the issue is much more serious. Perhaps it is the failure of an industry (Ollywood) to create an identity and to build a reputation. This reflects that Oriya film industry still struggles to garner respect and support outside Orissa.

Even having talents, technical efficiency and a conducive market atmosphere, why Oriya film industry is still reeling under serious accusations of loosing creativity and innovation in content? Perhaps the time has reached for us to seriously contemplate on this question. In my view the real culprit is the ‘lack of ideas’. We are lacking in new concepts or innovation and thus allowing others to point fingers at us. Some of the filmmakers just want to be a part of the flow and others who have the potential to emerge with innovation lack the trust of producers.

Perhaps the time has reached to think out of box and establish an empire of own creativity in the highly creative world of celluloid business.

It was spirituality which ruled the screen in the early days of filmmaking in Orissa. Then came the stories which talked of feudalism in society, serious consequences of caste system and other social evils. For decades the family feuds, the protagonist against the evil and romance in the backyard kept Oriya audience indulged in pure entertainment. The Saas-Bahu sagas also dragged the audience to the theatre for sometime. Now the time has reached to look beyond making of this protagonist or ‘they lived happily ever after’ cinemas.

The love triangles and running around the tree will no more be interesting for the metro bound ambitious young generation of Orissa. The highly aspiring young generation with a never say a die spirit will hardly show any interest in the current Ollywood products. With Bollywood films making way to our drawing rooms every day, the filmmakers should understand the pressure.

The changing socio-economic scenario, emergence of nuclear families and the difficulty of the present generation to hold to their roots are some of the subjects which need much attention from the directors to begin a new phase of filmmaking. In the changing scenario the stories like that of ‘Hakim Babu’ may not be appropriate one but the constant pressure on the tribals to hold to their roots due to the rising urbanization would provide enough substance for a good cinema these days. The highly ambitious young generation and the woes of city bound village lads need to be deliberated upon than the stereotype college love stories. Dowry deaths, child abuse, growing criminalisation in the urban set up are some of the new are some of the areas which should be looked into besides the Saas-Bahu stories or ‘Sahar Jaluchhi’ type gangster themes. The Oriya literary heritage can also open up its treasure box for new age auteur.

It is true that keeping the Oriya audience in mind the stories of Ollywood films can’t go Bollywood way. The constraint of financial support also restricts the industry to go on a widespread experimentation on subjects. At the same time the Oriya filmmakers should not forget that the populist approach or on screen expose alone will not work to attract the new generation cine goers.

The present generation of producers and directors need to think beyond the ‘formula’ and emerge with innovative ideas, which can be projected as our own and help to build the reputation for the industry as well.

Mr Amiya Pattnaik has clapped the mahurat shot of SAMAYA HATARE DORI at Hanuman Temple near CRP Square at Bhubaneswar.

The film credits are as follows:

Banner- Dreamland Cine Crafts
Presented by – Choudhary Ashok Das
Proudced by - Smt. Tilotoma Das, Choudhary Pinky Das
Script & Direction – Amulya Das
Music – Rati-Alok
Lyrics-Nizam, Arun Mantri, Purendu Dasmohapatra, Ratikant Barik, Purna Mohapatra
Vocals: Namita Agrawall, Md. Aziz, Manas Pritam, Kumar Bapi, sailabhama, Tapu Mishra, Pami
Camera: Ganeswara Mohapatra
Art - Partha Mohanty
Dance - Murali Babu
Fight - kundatara Babu
Costume – Babuni
Make up – Promod
Graphics - sasikant Rout
Still Photo - Tukuna (Payal Studio)
Star Cast - Sidhant, Anu Choudhrary,Mihir Das, Meghna Mishra, Debajani, Debu Bose, Braja singh, Suman, Neelam, Nayanatara, Raja Mohanty, Ashok Bal, Krushna, Chanda, Tota, Pagul, Bijoy Mohanty (Rourkela), Hena, Julie, Satyanaran Bhatter, Sapan Gupta, Arun, Master swaraj, Baby Nikitaa and Aparajita

Orissacinema wishes her readers a Happy Ratha Jatra!

We also invite you to the premier show of Jai Jagannath which took place in Bhubaneswar!

(Photographs by Ashok Panda)

By Ashok Palit

Following the heels of season’s top releases, upcoming is the new Oriya film “Samaya Hatare Dori“. This star-studded extravaganza is awaiting its Mahurat on July 17th.

“Samaya Hatare Dori” is produced by Choudhary Ashok Das, and directed by Amulya Das. The much-awaited film stars some of the biggest names in Oriya film industry: Aparajita, Mihir Das, Anu, Debajani, Hadu, and Braja.

Stay tuned and look out for more on this space for the updates on “Samaya Hatare Dori”!

Please click on the photographs or here, to access the full gallery of Samaya Hatare Dori!

Remember E Mana Manena?

The Mihir Das/Arindam/Kajal/Barsha starrer is currently running houseful and also is mired with controversies.

The film has entered into a legal problem as Hyderabad-based film production house M/s Prasad Production Pvt Ltd (PPPL) has alleged the movie has violated Copyright Act.

The movie `Ea Mana Manena’ produced under the banner M/s Maa Bhavani Pictures of Bhubaneswar was released on March 29 just hours before a lower court in Bhubaneswar had restrained its producer from releasing the movie. The producer of the movie Bijaya Kumar claimed as the movie was released before the court verdict was pronounced, the court’s ruling had become “in-fructuos” and the same was not binding on him. The young film producer, who has made a movie after almost a decade of his premier movie in 1995, has also challenged the lower court’s order in Orissa High Court. A fast track court of Bhubaneswar had on March 29 restrained the producer from releasing its movie after taking up a petition filed by the managing director of PPPL. The PPPL in its petition had prayed for an ad-interim injuction against Bijaya Kumar and urged the court to restrain him from releasing his movie as the later has violated the Copyright Act. The Hyderabad-based film production house claimed in his petition that the Oriya movie is a copy of a Telugu blockbuster film `Arya’.

The managing director of PPPL in his petition had claimed that he had purchased the copyright of the Telugu film in January 2006 for Rs 37 lakhs to make films in other different languages, including Oriya language. But the Oriya film producer maintains that the storyline of his romantic movie is entirely of his own and he has not copied it from any other cinema. “I have never seen the Telugu film `Arya’ nor have I read or heard about its content. I released my movie after obtaining a certificate from the Censor Board, Kolkata,” Bijaya Kumar who is also in construction business told mediapersons here .

Petition filed

He also said his movie was running full house in many places and it would be released in other cinema houses of the soon. In order to avoid any further legal hassles over his movie, Bijaya Kumar also filed an application before the Orissa High Court on Monday urging the court to set aside the lower court’s order of March 29.

Did you know the legendary Bollywood star Mithun Chakraborty is largely responsible for making an Oriya film a runaway hit?

“Ae Jugara Krushna Sudama”, released across Orissa in January, is back at as many as 11 cinema theatres for a second time primarily because of the performance of the Bengali actor, who dazzled Bollywood with his dancing in the 1980s.

Basanta Naik’s Brajaraj Movies has produced A Jugara Krushna Sudama , which features Mithun in a lead role. “People in Orissa have shown extra interest to watch this movie,” a thrilled Naik said.

About eight Oriya films had been released since January, but A Jugara Krushna Sudama was the only one that had been a commercial success, the producer said.

Directed by Hara Patnaik, A Jugara Krushna Sudama is Naik’s 12th Oriya movie. It is the story of two friends, one poor and the other rich. Mithun plays the poor friend while Uttam Mohanty, a top Oriya actor, plays the rich one.

Naik is perhaps the only Oriya film producer who has risked roping in stars from Bollywood and Bengali cinema to add to a movie’s appeal. He had cast Raakhi Gulzar in his film Maa in the 1990s.

“Maa was a super hit at that time. I also introduced Prasenjit, Debashree Roy and Sujit Kumar (from Bengali cinema) before Orissa audiences. However, Mithun’s film has broken all past records,” Naik said.

This is the first time Mithun has played the lead role in an Oriya film. Earlier, he had made a guest appearance in Sahara Jaluchi .

“I saw his guest appearance in Sahara Jaluchi and decided to take him in my movie. He spoke good Oriya,” Naik said.

The experience of working with the star of such Bollywood hits as Disco Dancer was enriching, said the producer.

“We learnt many things from him. Mithun was very punctual and sincere. We had a 28-day schedule of shooting for him but one of the leading stars was ill. Therefore, we had to extend it to 62 days and Mithun cooperated. Looking at the commercial success (of A Jugara Krushna Sudama ), I am planning to dub the film in Bengali and Chattishgari languages,” added Naik.

Is Ollywood in dire need of moral pundits and censor boards? Will the creativity of latest genre of lyricists and composers be affected by the way their freedoms are restricted? Or are they simply abusing the liberties while pretending their works to be reflections of society at large?

The answers may be more complicated than they appear. Perhaps, we need a censor board not just for films and music, but also for the way the society is conducting itself in the current political anarchy. However for now, some leading film personalities are holding our cinema culture responsible.

In the latest round, the Orissa Cine Critic Association has criticized the vulgarity in Oriya cinema and music. In a seminar organized in Bhubaneswar, the Association has proposed that tax rebate should only be made available to original Oriya films and not remakes. It has also proposed that a censor board to screen music should be immediately formed comprising lyricists, composers, music critics, etc., while a similar censor committee should keep tabs on the video albums keeping in view the vulgarity of costumes, poses and lyrics. Subsequent to this, CDs cleared by the committee can only be telecast in various channels including the Door Darshan.

In this regard, a memorandum has been submitted to the State Culture Minister to act on. “It is now the time of remakes and remixes. Oriya cinema and music have been vitiated by crass commercialization because of some dubious elements. The vulgarity and banality is crossing all limits,” according to the association. Included among those who advocate for the censor boards are filmmaker Prashant Nanda, musician Prafulla Kar and actor George Tiadi. Cine critic association secretary Dillip Hali, highlighting the steps being taken in Maharashtra, asked the Government to come up with remedial measures immediately in the light of the memorandum presented. The event was organized in collaboration with the cultural outfit `Sanskruti O Sanskruti’.

From Afar

A weekly column by
Sahasranshu Mahapatra, New Delhi

“A good story well told cuts across all boundaries”— once said the Oscar nominated director Mira Nair. This also holds good for Sabyasachi Mahapatra’s new film ‘Jai Jagannath’. A seasoned director like Mr Mahapatra has roped in on the legendary story of the great devotee ‘Shriya Chandaluni’ (the divine sweeper) to attract the audience across the country as well as abroad. This version of the story is different in many ways from its initial celluloid version. The ‘Jai Jagannath’ team includes famous names of Oriya film industry Sadhu Meher, Sarat Pujari, Sritam and Jyoti Mishra. This is going to be the first Oriya film to be released in 13 other languages besides Hindi and English. Bollywood bigwig Bharat Shah has pumped money into it and Adlab Films is releasing it all over the country.

Anybody from Orissa is well aware of the story of ‘Shriya Chandaluni’ and Lord Jagannath. But this story is not a mere depiction of an Oriya scripture of ‘Laxmi Puran’ . Beyond the religious belief the story has two distinct features– casteism and glorification of a woman (wife) in a Hindu family. This story also narrates the women empowerment, abolition of caste system—at least in the temple and the importance of a woman in one’s family life. This is enough to attract the non-Oriya audience. Association of Bharat Shah as well as Adlab Films with the project substantiates the fact that a good story, well narrated, has all the potential to spin money in the glamour world.

After ‘Bhuka’ Sabyasachi Mahapatra has again banked on the well known scripture of ‘Laxmi Puran’ to garner a pan-Indian audience support for Oriya cinema. The efforts of Mr. Mahapatra and his team seems to be very promising but the question of the moment is whether this is the beginning of a new era for the Oriya film industry or the quest for resurgence of the original Oriya films will still stretch far? But everything will depend on how far the film stands upto the litmus test of the box office collection.

Industry insiders have no hesitation in accepting that the new age filmmakers are largely dependent on Bangla, Telugu or Bollywood films for new ideas. There is largely a crisis of new and innovative ideas in the film industry in Orissa. Can the industry now rope in on Oriya literary heritage to save its status which has reached at the verge of ‘identity crisis’ in terms of content ?

Unfortunately recent Ollywood has not witnessed many cinematic adaptations of literary works. The money minded producers have never thought of taking a risk. Those who dared to tell heart touching stories on celluloid have often been cornered as the ‘art filmmakers’. Their films have failed the box office test though they have created an identity for the Oriya film industry across the globe. At the same time, stalwarts like Raju Mishra, Amiya Patnaik, Ravi Kinnagi , Sisir Mishra and Hara Patnaik have been trying to explore new avenues in commercial cinema but the crisis of establishing an Oriya identity in celluloid world is still looming large.

One must not forget that Orissa has witnessed many celluloid adaptations of literary works. The list is quite elegant with the master pieces like Kaa, Badhunirupama, Adina Megha, Amada Bata, Matira Manisha, Abhimana, Adimimansha, Maya Miriga, Kaberi, Subarna Sita, Aranyaka, Chha Mana Atha Guntha, Lakshmira Abhisara, Gare Sindura Dhare Luha and many more. People like Manmohan Mahapatra, Nirad Mahapatra, Himanshu Khatua and Sabyasachi Mahapatra have been trying to bridge the gap between commercial cinema and art cinema, while delivering some excellent products of this popular art form. But whenever it comes to the reputation of the industry we are losing to an infamous belief of borrowing ideas from our neighbors.

Perhaps it is the time to introspect and to invest a sustained effort to reinstate that lost glory of Ollywood. We Oriyas have a rich cultural and literary heritage which can be transformed into exemplary celluloid saga. The need of the hour is to have a look within and an honest desire to create own Oriya identity in this world of light and shades.

Veteran Sabyasachi Mahapatra has shown the way and let us hope the new comers will reestablish the lost glory following same path.

Close on the heels of Hollywood teen trivia, Orissa cinemas are going to provide quite a few relief as well.

The latest is our superstar Siddhanta Mohapatra has set a standard regarding hogging the headlines.

No wonder, he had to be booked for that. Siddhanta was caught while talking on his mobile phone even as he drove amidst a crowded area in Bhubaneswar. Nothing fancy happened after that, although he was booked for violating traffic rules

Anup Kanungo, the city traffic inspector informed that Siddhanta was returning after the shooting of a film and the police have registered a case against the actor for violating traffic rules. Later on of course, Mohapatra was let go free to the real world subsequent to his written submission that he will not violate traffic rules in future.

Lets only hope, for Siddhanta, promises are meant to be kept outside the film world as well!