To what extent can a committed actor go to prove his passion for cinema?
"I lost seven kilos for my role in Daalcheeni," says young Odia actor Partha Sarathi Ray. If that doesn’t impress you much, he goes on to add that he languished in the same pair of shirt and trousers and did not brush or bathe for five days for his role in the socio-psychodrama Boffin.
Ray is on a mission to prove that the Odia film industry is much more than remakes of family dramas. That the storylines and actors are authentic.
His latest Daalcheeni -- a travel love story by directors Sisir Sahu and Peenakee Singh -- bagged the best feature film award in the national category at the seventh International Film Festival in Shimla in November. He had previously put on weight for two roles in Durgatinashini and web series Anthony.
"I had also gained weight during the Covid lockdown. The director wanted a lean, mean look. So I had to shed the extra kilos," Ray says.
Set in the scenic Marine Drive at Puri, the film brings together two people from different worlds -- a 30-year-old corporate who is a virgin, and an escort.
"They fall in love after discovering each other's worlds during a 48-hour-long journey that they undertake together. It's a story about their forbidden love," says the television and film actor who is happy with the appreciation coming his way for the film.
Besides praise from Films Division India head Amrit Pal Singh and award-winning director Pampeli, the Odisha Cine Critics Association felicitated Ray for his work in the film Daalcheeni recently.
From Hello Arsi in 2019 which won both the National and State awards to Daalcheeni now and a diverse range of thought-provoking cinema in between, Ray’s filmography has been varied.
Hello Arsi, which was directed by Sambit Mohanty, was also a travel love story but revolved around the concept of human displacement.
"Even with a glorious past, the Odia films of late have mostly been remakes of Bengali, Tamil and Telugu cinema, done on a shoestring budget. But all is not lost yet. We can still pull the industry out of the debacle with quality cinema. The need is to focus on good stories and realistic cinema that will click with the educated masses," says the actor who debuted in Ollywood with Nai Separai Kanak Gori in 2013.
His film Hello Arsi was a turning point in his career and so was Charitra, a crime thriller that was released on television this year. Apart from mainstream cinema, Ray has also worked in short films, including Baji-The Immortal Boat Boy that tells the story of the youngest martyr of Odisha’s freedom struggle.
His socio-psychodrama Boffin has also been a talking point in 2021. He essayed the character of a political science student who is a follower of writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Franz Kafka and speaks against crony capitalism and destruction in the name of development.
Elaborating about his work, he adds, "I wore the same pair of shirt and trousers and went without brushing or bathing for five days as I felt characters demand this kind of honesty and authenticity."
Ray says that he has steadfastly declined roles that typecast him. "In all these films that I have done in the last five years, I have come across a completely different style of storytelling, cinematography and sound design which puts Odia cinema on a par with contemporary Hindi films and web series," says the actor who is now considered the face of new-age Odia cinema.
Coming soon
Ray is now awaiting the release of Anthony, an upcoming web series. A psychological crime thriller with a hint of supernatural elements, it is one of the biggest budget web series made in Ollywood so far. Also, he recently completed Raja Sahiba where he plays the role of a patriarchal and misogynistic Muslim youth.