Yesteryear Odia superstar Sriram Panda will receive the coveted Jayadev Puraskar for Lifetime Achievement of an Odia film personality, the State’s highest honour for cinema, for 2011.
Panda, now better known as Swami Nitya Chaitanya of the Bihar School of Yoga at Munger, quit films over 25 years back to turn a ‘sanyasi’.
Ace filmmaker Prashant Nanda will get the best director award and best story writer awards for his film ‘Thukul’. Tourism and Culture Department announced this in a release on Thursday.
‘Eka Eka’, a film dealing with loneliness in society and the search for what it means to be a good human being, has been nominated for four awards, including Mohan Sundar Dev Goswami Award for best film, best screenplay (Subas Das) and best sound recordist (Namita Nayak). Siddhanta Mahapatra, who plays the protagonist Om, has been nominated for the best actor award for the movie, ‘Eka Eka’. Siddhant plays a filmmaker who strives to bridge the gulf between his art and life by finding a common thread for both in responsibility and concern for the other.
Archita Sahu has been adjudged best actress for ‘Chocolate’, while best supporting actor and best supporting actress awards will be given to Minaketan (for Thukul) and Aparajita Mohanty (Chocolate) respectively. Lina and Hadu and Anwesha Mohapatra have been declared best comedian and best child actor respectively. While Premananda (Chandaini I Miss You) is best music director, Krishna (Mu Premi Mu Pagala) and Ira Mohanty (Mote Bohu Kari Neija) are adjudged the best male and female playback singers respectively.
The Special Jury Award will be given to Priya Choudhary. The other awardees include Amiya Moharana for best art director (Kemiti Ae Bandhana), Chakradhar Sahoo for best editing, Aruna Mantra for best lyrics, Rajani Ranjan Das for best dialogue writer, Nirmal Das for best costume man, Khirod Panda for best makeup man and Dilip Swain for best choreography.
No award has been announced in the categories of best children’s or educational films, best documentary and best film in any tribal language. Of the 33 films made last year, only 10 were in the race for the awards. The State Government had last year enhanced the number of awards from 22 to 27.
The awards will be presented at a special ceremony at Utkal Mandap here on November 25.