BHUBANESWAR: The mortal remains of Odia filmmaker-producer Amiya Patnaik were consigned to flames at Swargadwar in Puri on Saturday. Patnaik, known for his award-winning films like Hakim Babu, passed away after a prolonged illness at Delhi on Friday. He was 63 and undergoing treatment at a private hospital there for pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife Seema and son Anupam.
‘Hakim Babu’, which narrated the story of industrialisation and displacement in a village of Odisha, had won him the National Award in 1985. An engineer by profession, Patnaik had ventured into producing and making Odia films out of passion. He went on to produce some memorable films like ‘Mamata Mage Mula’, ‘Pua Mora Kala Thakura’ and ‘Chaka Aakhi Sabu Dekhuchi’. He was also the founding member of Kanak Manjari Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and director of Eastern Media Limited.
Patnaik’s last film as director was ‘Tulasi Apa’, the first Odia biopic on social activist Tulasi Munda, was released in 2015. This had also won him several accolades nationally and internationally.He had also made a name for himself on small screen with one of the longest running Odia shows ‘Gotie Mana ra Kotie Swapna’.
Also a dramatist, Patnaik had formed TechnoArts, a theater group, during his stint as a student in NIT, Rourkela. He made dramas like ‘Pruthak Pruthibi’ and ‘Byabhichara’, ‘Narka re Chahala’ to name a few. In 1978, he was adjudged the best director in Lok Kala Mahotsav and shot to fame in 1981 with ‘Byabhichara’. He is credited to have started slow-motion techniques on the stage. Members of the Odia film and theatre fraternity mourned his death.