| South Asian cinema |
Oriya Film Industry (Oriya: ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସିନେମା) or Ollywood refers to the Cuttack and Bhubaneswar based Oriya film industry in India. The origin of the name is disputed, and is believed to be a portmanteau of the words Oriya and Hollywood.[1]
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Oriya films have no silent movie like Bengali and Assamese cinema. It started straight way with a talkie. The first Oriya talkie Sita Bibaha was made by Mohan Sunder Deb Goswami in 1936. Drawn from the great Indian epic Ramayana, the story tells about the marriage of Sita with Ram. The actual plot was made from a drama written by Kamala Mishra. Prepared with a purse of only Rs 30,000, the film has 14 song sequences. Despite it being the first Oriya film with several drawbacks in every section of its making, the two-hour-long movie generated great enthusiasm among the people.Released by Laksmi Talkies, the 12-reeled film had in its cast line Makhanlal Banerjee (Ram) who received only Rs 120 for his performance, Aditya Ballav Mohanty (Lakhsman) who got only Rs 35 as conveyance allowance and Prabati Devi (Sita) who was paid the highest amount of Rs 150. This was a landmark film of Oriya Film Industry.[2]
The pace of Oriya film production in the initial years was very slow. After Sita Bibaha, only two films were produced till 1951. A joint consortium of landlords and businessmen who collected fund after 1948 produced those two movies. The 1951 production Roles to Eight was the first Oriya film having an English name. It was released after 15 years of the first Oriya film Sita Bibaha. It was the fourth Oriya film produced by Ratikant Padhi.The eleventh Oriya film Sri Lokenath was the first Oriya film, which got National Award in 1960 directed by Prafulla Sengupta. [2]
The same year, Prasanta Nanda won National Award as best actor for the film Nua Bou with his debut film. The name of Prasanta Nanda would always come while dealing with Oriya Film Industry. He was present in Oriya films since 1939, but he became super active only after 1976. Nanda served Oriya Film Industry as an actor, director, screenplay writer, and lyricist and even as a playback singer. Such a versatile genius is quite rare in Indian cinema history. Nanda alone carried Oriya films into the national honor list by winning National Awards for three times in 1960, 1966 and 1969 for his acting in Nua Bou, Matir Manisha and Adina Megha.
Mohammed Mohsin started the revolution in the Oriya film industry by not only securing the essence of the Oriya culture but also bringing in the newness in the way the film industry was watching Oriya movies. His movies heralded in the golden era of the Oriya film industry by bringing in freshness to Oriya movies. His directorial debut was Phoola Chandana for which he won the best director award from the state.He had to his credit 16 box office successful movies in his directorial stint. He started as an actor in character roles and gave household names like Raaka to Orissa. Mohsin stated his career with B.R.Chopra as an assistant director before making his presence felt in the Oriya film industry.
Uttam Mohanty, whose debut film Abhiman won accolade, is now the ruling hero of the Oriya Film Industry. His wife Aparajita Mohanty is also a roaring heroine. Actress Nandita Das, who acted in several Hindi movies like Fire, has Oriya origin. She acted in Susanta Misra directed Biswaprakash which won National Award in 2000. But many critic have so far termed Bijay Mohanty and Mihir Das to be two of the best ever Oriya actors so far. Siddhanta Mahapatra, a new generation star, has an increasing number of fans following rightly to be included amongst all time greats. Archita, another successful actress in the millennium era of Oriya cinema has been also hitting the silver screen with a golden touch.Anubhab Mohanty is a well known name in ollywood. He is famous for his action and romantic movie.
Oriya Film Industry, especially in 1960s and in 1970s, were highly indebted to Bengali films. Several Bengali directors help their Oriya counterparts to help make films. Eminent director Mrinal Sen even directed an Oriya film Matira Manisha which won National Award for best actor Prashanta Nanda.
Personalities of the Oriya film industry include:
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