Himanshu Guru
For short filmmaker Santosh Panda celluloid is an ideal medium of generating awareness and conveying socially relevant messages. The director’s oeuvre consists of films that have elicited global appreciation, all of which are based on prevailing social anomalies…
“I always make it a point to raise awareness about social issues affecting a vast swathe of society in my films,” says Santosh Panda, director of the upcoming feature film ‘Sabas Biju’ (Bravo Biju). Although the ‘Biju’ in the title refers to former Orissa chief minister Biju Patnaik, the film focuses on child rights. It is an interesting fictional account revolving around a kid. The film was selected for the National Children’s Film Festival held in Jaipur. Sunday POST speaks to the director about the social evils he has sought to portray in the film.
“Biju is an 11-year-old son of a widow, who helps his ailing mother to earn a livelihood for the family. In school he comes to know that his name is synonymous with the great leader of Orissa. Accordingly, the kid attempts to solve child-related social issues prevalent in the village and finally gets rewarded. The script incorporates many twists and thrills which will largely enchant children and convey a social message to elders,” says Panda.
“The script has been compiled after long years of research and the presentation is a perfect package of information and entertainment. My objective is to sensitise people about the problem of child labour, but if the film is not supported by the element of entertainment it won’t attract the attention of the audience,” the director adds.
Oriya actors Harihar Mohapatra, Binayak Mishra, Jeeban Panda, Kalinga Dash, Banmali Pandia, Manoj Mohapatra, Kuni Panda, Mili Mohanty, Antarjyami Panda, Ananta Mishra, Ramakanta Mishra, Dharitri Khandual, Chitta Nanda and child artiste Subhangi Panda comprise the cast of the film.
The protagonist’s role is essayed by Snehal Sujal Mohanty, a Class VI student of SAI International School. Panda says that after a three-phase audition he selected 16 kids. The film unit subsequently organised a workshop to train them. “We taught the kids vital skills such as acting, expression and reaction, and finally the protagonist was selected. Snehal is a fair boy and the role needed to show him in a dark shade, for which we had to put much effort. Again, some of the boys were from English medium schools, some were from Oriya medium schools and the others were from slums. It was a tough job to train these three groups for a common purpose,” he says. The film is going to release soon, the director adds.
A compact version of ‘Sabas Biju’ was screened at the National Children’s Film Festival held in Jaipur. It was witnessed by Hindi film actors Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Mukesh Khanna and was highly lauded.
‘Sabas Biju’ apart, Panda has many short films, a number of documentary films and jingles (spots) to his credit. His short film ‘The Reel and the Real’ on transgender and human rights was awarded as the first Indian narrative short film. Besides, his short film ‘The Voice’ (on child abuse) was screened at the Kallola Film Festival where he received an award from the Governor. While his other short films such as ‘Munna’, ‘Urbashi’ and ‘The Attitude’ made it to the ‘We Care Film Festival’, his films ‘The Dignity’ and ‘The helping hand’ (on disability) received state awards. Panda’s film ‘Our Bapu’ on Mahatma Gandhi made it to the National Academy of Films and TV in Bangalore. He has been conferred with the Santibarta Samman, Gyanashree Samman and Shraddhasuman Samman.
The director’s three films ‘Urbashi’, ‘The Dignity’ and ‘Munna’ have been selected by the Sports and Youth Affairs department, government of Odisha, for screening in schools and colleges as motivational movies and a few of his short films have been screened in Paris, Iran, Dubai and some SAARC and European countries.
Santosh is also an audio visual expert, creative expert, content designer and anchor of repute. So far he has developed tableau design for some state and national events and has written screenplays, composed audio video spots and participated in a number of radio and TV talk shows and panel discussions.
Asked why all his films are based on social issues, Panda replies: “After completion of education I started working in the social sector. I worked closely with the coastal and tribal people. The experience provided me a vision and I decided to present the issues through films. It also helped me a lot to visualise and present my films in a meaningful way.”
“I worked in TV shows like ‘Ajira Odisha’, ‘Ajira Nari’ and ‘Ajira Cinema’. This stint in my life was a big step that encouraged me to work for people. Besides, my maternal uncle Professor Ramakanta Mishra also inspired me a lot,” he adds.
A native of Salepur in Cuttack district Santosh pursued high school education from Reba High School and Plus II from Salepur College. He completed post graduation from Ravenshaw College in 1997. Son of Annapurna and Kishore Chandra Panda, Santosh is married to Rajalaxmi Rath and the couple is blessed with daughters Subhangi and Kalyani.
Dwelling on the much-needed family support he has received, Panda says: “The first reviewer of all my scripts is my wife. Interestingly, her suggestions make the scripts more interesting.”
Many of Panda’s films have been lauded by national and international filmmakers. Asked about his interaction with renowned actors and directors, Panda says: “I interacted with directors Kalpana Lajmi, Govind Nihalani, Goutam Ghose and other biggies in film festivals. I have learned a lot from them about presentation, which includes the tempo of a film and how to extract the best work from actors.”
“Sabas Biju is a film, every children must watch including their parents. The government and private agencies should support the film. I hope it would make a tremendous impact and contribute to eradicating child labour,” the director signs off.
