Atal Bihari Panda does not let age affect his acting skills. At a time when the Odia film industry (popularly known as Ollywood) is being dominated by young heroes, the 85-year-old actor has bagged the ‘Best Actor’ award at the Odisha State Film Awards for two years in a row.
Panda, who hails from Binika village in Sonepur district of Odisha, has been chosen as the ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Dialogue Writer’ for the State Film Awards 2014 for his film, Aadim Vichar (The Ancient Justice). Directed by Sabyasachi Mohapatra, the film deals with the societal structure of Kondh tribal community in Kandhamal. Panda portrays the character of 84-year-old tribal man Sukru Majhi, who believes in taking life as it comes.
Aadim Vichar is the octogenarian’s second film, the first being Sala Budha (The Stupid Old Man), which too bagged the state award last year. Panda bagged the Best Actor Award for the film, which dealt with the plight of elderly people in villages of western Odisha. Both the films were based on short stories by Sahitya Akademi Award winning writer Kapileswar P Mohapatra. With Sala Budha, Panda began his acting journey in mainstream Odia cinema at the age of 82.
Prior to that, he had done a 45-minute telefilm Dangar Tale Dambaru Baba, on tribal communities in Odisha for Doordarshan. The actor, who is exuberant about the fete, says playing the role of Sukru in Aadim Vichar was more difficult than essaying the character in Sala Budha. “In Sala Budha, I had to play the role of the villager. Sukru was a more intense character. Hailing from western Odisha, I had no idea about the Kondh community. So, I had to put in a lot of research to build up Sukru’s character,” says Panda, who was an Agriculture Officer with the Odisha Government before joining film industry. During his official stint in Cuttack, he had performed in over 100 plays with the Annapurna Theatre, besides writing over 70 dramas and six operas, both in Odia and Koshali language.
He, however, never thought of making it to the film industry. “Sabyasachi wanted to make films from the short stories that were authored by Kapileswar, who was my friend. Four years ago, he came to Binika and approached me to write the dialogues of Sala Budha,” he recalls.
The dialogues were written and the film’s script was ready, but the director was not sure of any mainstream actor who could fit into the role of Sala Budha.
“To my surprise, he called me up one night and asked me to play the lead. During his college days, he had done a small role in one of my plays Phata Mardala, where I played the lead role. Sabyasachi recollected that and decided to cast me as Sala Budha,” says Panda.
The veteran actor took the stage for the first time in class VI and he’s still in love with acting. He is now working on the third part of the series, titled Sala Budha Ra Badala.
