BHUBANESWAR: Actress Arpita Mukherjee — a close associate of former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee — from whose apartment Rs 21.20 crore was seized, had done at least six Odia films within five years alongside popular actors.
The Bengali film and TV actress debuted in the Odia film industry in 2008 with Bande Utkala Janani. Director Suvendu Swain introduced her to Odia cinema. She was cast as the female lead opposite then superstar Siddhanta Mohapatra and Sabyasachi Mishra. As the film did well, Arpita bagged a lead role in Prem Rogi in 2009. The following year, she played the second female lead in Debu Patnaik’s Tora Mora Jodi Sundara. She also did Kemiti A Bandhana which starred Chandrachur Singh, Sabyasachi and Anu Chaudhury in 2011. More films followed.
Sources in the industry said Arpita juggled Odia and Bengali cinema but after 2012, she decided to shift permanently to Tollywood as offers from Ollywood dwindled. Meanwhile, ED officers said they are not investigating Arpita’s links with Ollywood as they have not received any request for doing so from their counterparts in West Bengal.