Bijaya Jena

Bijaya Jena

Bijaya Jena (Dolly Jena)
Born 16 August
Cuttack, Orissa, India

Bijaya Jena (also known as Dolly Jena or Bijoya Jena) (Oriya: ଡଲି େଜନା )(born 16 August in Cuttack, Orissa) is an Indian actor, film director and producer.

Early years

Bijaya jena

Jena is the youngest of 3 children, born into a family of academicians and aristocrats. Her mother came from a feudal Zamindar (aristocrats) background and her father, the late B.C.Jena was a Civil Engineer by profession and after his retirement learned homoeopathy and became a practising homoeopath. He also became the President of the Nigamanand Ashram, Cuttack.

In her early teens, Jena expressed her intention to join a course in Film Acting which was the only course she could opt for at that time as other technical courses needed graduate students. In spite of stiff opposition, she was firm in her decision.Her father had to seek advice from a child psychiatrist whether to allow her to pursue her to study film acting. Once the counsellor gave the nod then only she enrolled in the Film and Television Institute of India for a Diploma Course in Film Acting.

Acting career

Jena became an actress in the Oriya film industry and soon won the State Award for Best Actress for her performance in Jaga Balia.

She went on to work in a number of Hindi and Oriya feature films, television serials and plays, of which Hakim Babu (Oriya Film) received the National award for the Best Oriya Film.

She has also acted in Ismail Merchant's British film, The Deceivers, directed by Nicholas Meyer.

Jena has always been attracted to spiritualism and the mystical. She participated in a Science and Religion Conference – the International Transpersonal Association Conference whose focus was on the amalgamation between science and spiritualism. Here, she interacted with well-known personalities in the field of science and religion. She also did a course in EST by Warner Erhard.

Jena had entered the Indian film industry in the 1980s, when the industry was going through a transition and the New Wave Cinema or Serious Cinema (or Art Cinema) which had flourished through the 50s and 60s (under the aegis of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen and Shyam Benegal) was floundering and dying in the 1980s. So, she decided to make her own films.

In 1992, Jena made her directorial debut with the Oriya feature film, Tara which went on to receive National Award. Jena was on the Governing Council of the Film and Television Institute of India from 1992–95 and on the National Feature Film Awards Jury in 1993.

In 1997, she scripted, directed and produced her second film, Abhaas (English: Prologue). Both the films participated in festivals abroad and received critical acclaim.

In 2007, She was on the International Jury of Fajr International Film Festival,Teheran.[1]

In 2011, she was on the Jury in First Kish International Film Festival, Iran.[2] In 2012, she was on the jury in Roshd Educational Film Festival in Iran. She was awarded for Life Time Dedication in Odisha in 2012.She was awarded by the Pinamar Municipality,Argentina in 2014.

Directing career

Tara

Jena co-scripted, directed and produced Tara, her first feature film in the Oriya language in 1992. Tara was based on a short story by Bimal Dutt (also the main script-writer of the film), a highly respected and prolific writer of the country. It was her directorial debut and she played the title role in the film.

Tara was completed in a budget of approximately US $20,000, borrowed from family and National and State Government Agencies.

The film has received the National Award for the Best Oriya Film 1992 and the President of the jury, a renowned film maker, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, in his speech, singled out Jena's name as one of the promising future directors of the country and Jena also received critical acclaim for her performance in the title character. The film Tara has competed in the Festival International du Cinema Au Feminin, Marseilles 1992 and participated in the Cairo International Film Festival 1992.

Abhaas

Abhaas is Bijaya's second feature film (in the Hindi language), which she scripted, directed and produced and played an important role in it. The film was made in 1996 with a modest budget of US$60,000. Abhaas had the honour of having the Hungarian maestro, István Gaál as the Script Advisor.

The film participated in the

It was also invited to the Montreal World Film Festival in Cinema of the World Category, 1997 and the International Film Festival in Sochi, Russia (the film could not participate in both Montreal and Sochi due to technical reasons). ABHAAS was telecast in Channel4,BBC in 2013 as 100yrs of Indian cinema Celebration.It will be premiered on Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation in October 2014.

Forthcoming projects

In 1997, Jena gave birth to a girl, Lopamudra, and took a break from film-making to raise her child. In this period, she developed a few scripts.

Danapani (English: The Survivor) is her script based on an award winning Oriya novella. It was approved by the National Film Development Corporation.An award winning French producer will be coproducing the film in 2015.

Goan Sonata is another script based on a tale of unrequited love between a British writer and a Goan woman during the difficult times of liberation movement. The language of the film is English.The project is under pre-production with Oscar winning actors,an ensemble cast of internationally well-known actors and excellent technical crew members from Europe.Currently negotiating with an American company to coproduce the film.

Acting credits

References

  1. ↑ Fajr International Film Festival
  2. ↑ Article on the Film Festival in DearCinema