BHUBANESWAR: Filmmaker late Nirad Mohapatra, director of Maya Miriga, had always dreamt of enriching the Odia cinema, said his wife Sabita Mohanty who played an important role in making of the iconic film .
Recalling the struggles of Mohapatra during the session ‘Miya Miriga: The Restoration of a Cultural Treasure’ at Odisha Literary Festival-2024 here on Saturday, Mohanty said the renowned director completed his studies in FTII Pune but didn’t prefer to stay in Mumbai and always had a desire to make Odia films.
“Though he had thought of making Maya Miriga from a very young age, funding was a major obstacle. We also didn’t have a complete written script for the movie,” she said.
Mohanty said Mohapatra had to seek a loan of Rs 4 lakh from the National Film Development Corporation which he repayed gradually. The 1984 production was made with a new cast. “The cast was picked on the basis of real life characters which Mohapatra observed in his surroundings,” she said.
The feature film that revolves around a middle-class joint family living in a small town in Odisha, turned out to be a a classic milestone in the history of Indian cinema after it was released in 1984. It also won the Best National Film award and was selected for screening at the ‘critics week’ of Cannes film festival then. The iconic film has now been restored by the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF).
Sharing details about the restoration, filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur in a video message said he was thinking of reviving Maya Miriga from the time he first saw it at FTII, Pune. “When we started to look around for the negatives, we found them in a godown.”
Dungarpur further said the film had been shot in 16 mm and was in such a bad condition that it turned out to be one of the toughest restoration works for the FHF.
“Since the celluloid film had been shot in 16 mm, it could get wet and covered with fungus if not preserved well. We had to cut the negatives into pieces and put those back together. The entire restoration work took almost two to three years,” he said.
Dungarpur also said Mohapatra’s son Sandeep had a great role in restoration of the film and the current challenge for them now is its re-release. “Maya Miriga is an important film for Odisha which made its restoration even more significant,” he added.
