The bad man of Ollywood, popularly known as Samaresh, is an actor of substance and versatility. Twenty-four-films old in the Odia film industry, Samaresh Routray is an actor who has been seen in a plethora of roles and has the knack of handling difficult characters with ease. Through hard work and persistence, he has won a place for himself in the industry.
He attributes his accomplishments to the time spent in school and college. While school days instilled in him a strong sense of discipline, college for Routray was an opportunity to discover himself. “During school, the atmosphere at home was meticulous but they never clipped my wings. I was given liberty but I knew my limits. However, college was a time when I broke free with no inhibitions and zero responsibilities,” recollects the actor, who debuted in 23 March Saheed Bhagat Singh in 2002. After this film, he moved to the Odia film industry and there has been no looking back since.
A drama student of Utkal Sangeet Mahavidhyalaya in Bhubaneswar, Routray moved to New Delhi in 1998 to purse a PG diploma in acting from National School of Drama (NSD). Fondly remembering his college days, the actor admits he was creative and a brat at the same time. “At Utkal Sangeet Mahavidhyalaya, we were never ragged or even allowed to rag any student. But yes, we had fun of a different kind on the campus,” he says. For his leadership qualities, Routray was always selected as production manager for drama teams by his teachers.
He adds, “We had a small sweet shop behind our college. The owner and his workers used to prepare sweets all night. During one of the earlier drama shows, we had stayed back to practice. After the practice was over by midnight, we sneaked into the sweet shop and stole chenna poda (cheese cake) and had it with bhang. Getting up the next day for the drama was a headache but the experience turned into an addiction. The owner knew that we stole his sweets but never confronted us,” he laughs.
Routray was also the first student of NSD to organise a modern dance event in the institute, which is known for retaining its ‘classical values’ since inception. “During the award distribution ceremony, a cultural night was always organised. Towards the end of my course, I decided to stage a modern dance show during one such award night. The motive was to show that even modern dance required talent, but none of my teachers were convinced even though they allowed me to go ahead with it. The event was a huge success,” he says.
Routray also remembers the close bonds and friendships he developed at NSD. He recollects being ragged for seven days continuously at NSD. “In fact, every newcomer was. I was asked to fill a bucket that was 200 metres away with water using a bottle cap. After the bucket was full, they would empty it and ask me to fill it up again. It was torturous, but at the end of seventh day, a freshers’ party was organised. The party was worth all the pain endured during ragging sessions,” he says.
He had a gang of four friends who had once slept off during a play. “Tripurari Sharma taught us drama. She had once asked us to stage what we did in hostel after classes were over. Four of us went on stage and pretended to sleep because that is what we did after 12 hours of classes. We actually slept off in the auditorium and no one woke us up till the next morning,” Routray says.
— diana@newindianexpress.com