BHUBANESWAR: Odia superstar Bijay Mohanty will receive the coveted Jayadev Puraskar for lifetime achievement of an Odia film personality, the State’s highest honour for cinema, for 2014.
Mohanty, who began his career with ‘Chilika Tire’ in 1977, has acted in over 200 films and numerous tele serials. “I am happy that the Government has recognised my contribution to the Odia film industry,” he said.
The 26th State Film Awards for 2014 were announced by Culture Minister Ashok Panda on Thursday.
Ace filmmaker Sabyasachi Mohapatra will get the Best Director and Best Art Director Awards for his film ‘Adim Vichar’. The movie, which deals with values of tribals, has been selected for six awards including Best Director, Best Art Director, Best Actor and Best Screen Play (both bagged by Atal Bihari Panda), Best Supporting Actress (Lochani Bag) and the Special Jury Award.
The film was a sequel of ‘Sala Budha’, based on the life of Kondh community of Odisha and was written by Mohapatra’s father Kapileswar Prasad Mohapatra. The protagonist of the film was an 80-year-old Kondh, played by actor Panda. Earlier this year, the film had bagged the prestigious National Award in Best Odia film category.
Gargi Mohanty will get the Best Actress Award for ‘Krantidhara’ while the film’s writer, Iti Samanta has been selected for Best Story Award. Krantidhara also bagged the Best Film Award.
The Balakrushna Das Samman for Best Music Director will be given to Vikas Das for ‘Golapi Golapi’ while, Sourabh Nayak and Tappu Mishra would get the Best Singer (Male) and Best Singer (Female) for films ‘Kidnap’ and ‘Ganja Ladhei’ respectively. Sandeep Mohanty has been selected for Pramod Pati Samman for Best Cameraman and Jitu Lal Sahu as Best Child Actor for his role in film ‘Papi’. Best Supporting Actor Award will be given to Pritiraj Satpathy for ‘Suka Asuchi’, a movie which deals with mining and displacement.
No award has been announced in the categories of best children’s or educational films, best documentary and best film in any tribal language. Of over 25 films made last year, 21 were in the race for the awards and the selections were made by a jury of seven eminent persons. Chairman of the Film Selection Committee Sanjib Chandra Hota said the quality of movies made last year compared to 2013 was superior.
The awards will be given away in second week of December.
State Tele Awards announced
On the occasion, the State Tele Awards for 2014 were also announced. Tele serial ‘Badhu’ has bagged awards in categories of Best Tele Serial, Best Story, Best Director (Santosh Kumar Biswal), Best Actor (Sukanta Rath), Best Actress (Madhusmita Pradhan) and Best Character Actress (Mandakini Subhan). This apart, Bhagaban Behera has been selected as the Best Character Actor. Awards will be given away in 20 categories.