After making critically-acclaimed films like 'Abhaas' (Prologue) and 'Tara', actress-turned-director Bijaya Jena will now adopt Gopinath Mohanty's novel 'Danapani' into a film. Bijaya decided to tell the story as she felt all modern day Odias should know about it.
"The theme of Danapani is universal as it deals with conflict of two cultures - one of the ruler and that of ruled," says Bijaya, who has contributed to every facet of film-making, be it acting, directing or even script-writing.
"My earlier two films were based in Odisha and I am always fascinated by our culture. I had read many Odia novels whenI took a break to raise my daughter. Danapani made an impression on me for its theme," she says. 'Danapani' is set during the British Raj and revolves around the ambition of the male protagonist, who wants to climb the social ladder and become a Saheb but in the bargain loses his family life. Bijaya has finalised the supporting cast, but search for the protagonist is on. "The lead actor was to be somebody like Raghuvir Yadav when I had spoken to him 10 years ago, but now I am considering NSD actor like Kumud Mishra," she says. Actors Milind Gunaji, Rajeev Khandelwal, Uday Chandra, Manoj Patnaik and Saroj Parida would be playing supporting roles. The director will shoot the film later this year in Odisha but a certain portion will be shot in a colonial bungalow outside the State. She is searching for the ideal bungalow now.
To a query on how different the film would be from her previous ventures, Bijaya says, "My films deal with human mind and human values. I am heavily influenced by the Russian literature the way they explore human mind. Every human is different and in different atmosphere, he acts differently. The atmosphere of 'Tara' was contemporary but 'Abhaas' was set in the 1950s after Independence. My current project is set before the Independence and that's the major difference in the milieu and the characters."
'Tara' in Odia and 'Abhaas' in Hindi are considered two of Bijaya's most noteworthy directorial ventures. As far as research for the film goes, Bijaya spoke to wife of author Gopinath Mohanty who informed her that the novel was written in the early 1940s. "I also spoke to my mother and many others, who have seen the club life of the British," she says.
On the quality of Odia films being made today, Bijaya says she has not heard much good things about Ollywood as they are heavily influenced by Telugu films with dances and rich sets. "As a juror on Indian Panorama, we did not see a single good Telugu film. For that matter, we rejected 'Bahubali' in Indian Panorama.
If the Odia filmmakers need to copy anybody, then the best option is their neighbour Bengal. We saw 30 Bengali films with brilliant stories and maximum in the Panorama were eight Bengali films (seven Bengali films and one Hindi film by a Bengali master Buddhadev Dasgupta)," Bijaya suggests. As an actor, she has recently acted in a Hindi feature film, 'Desire', which is based on a quadriplegic man from Odisha. The film has been directed by Avinash Nanda and produced by Rajinder Singh.
