A star-studded glittering nite marked the 23rd State Film Awards function here on Sunday.
Yesteryear Odia superstar Sriram Panda was honoured with the prestigious Jayadev Award for Lifetime Achievement for his contribution to the field of cinema by Governor MC Bhandare.
Receiving the award, Panda said: “I am glad that people of the State remember me even after so many years. If the Culture Department continues to promote Odia actors and films in this manner, I am sure the Odia film industry will reach greater heights soon.”
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’.
On the occasion, the veteran actor exhorted people to lead a yogic life. “By yogic lifestyle, I do not mean just health. Yoga can help in spiritual cleansing, connecting you with your soul,” he said.
Addressing the gathering, Culture Minister Maheswar Mohanty said there are plans to felicitate television artistes at State-level in future.
Art film ‘Eka Eka’ bagged four awards, including Mohan Sundar Dev Goswami Award for the best film, best screenplay (Subas Das) and best sound recordist (Namita Nayak). Siddhant Mahapatra, who plays the protagonist Om in ‘Eka Eka’, won the best actor award. This is Siddhant’s seventh State film award and last year, he was the recipient of Special Jury Award, one that has been bagged by Priya Choudhary this year.
Archita Sahu was given the best actress award for ‘Chocolate’, while best supporting actor and best supporting actress awards went to Minaketan (for Thukul) and Aparajita Mohanty (Chocolate) respectively.
Lina and Hadu and Anwesha Mohapatra were feted with best comedian and best child actor awards respectively.
Of the 33 films made last year, only 10 were in the race for the awards.