Post News Network
Bhubaneswar:The 28th state Oriya Film Awards ceremony was organised at Utkal Mandap here Tuesday. Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda who inaugurated the glittering ceremony gave away awards to film personalities in the state. Director Pradeep Bhol’s ‘Chini’ received the ‘Mohan Sundar Deb Goswami Samman’ for the Best Feature Film of 2016.
Ajay Rath was presented the Best Director category award for his movie ‘Namard’. Veteran singer Pranab Kishore Patnaik received the Jayadev Puraskar for his lifelong contribution to music industry. He was felicitated with a citation and `1 lakh cash prize at the programme. Dillip Kumar Chaudhary received the State Film Awards in the Best Story category for ‘Namard’.
Sukumar Mani and Samaresh Routray received awards in Best Editing and Best Actor categories respectively, for their contribution in Love U Jessicaand Namardrespectively. Samaresh Routray was absent at the function because of his mother’s demise. A relative received the award on his behalf. Similarly, Lipi Mohapatra was presented the Best Actress award for her role in ‘Mimansa’. The award to Late Minaketan Das as Best Actor in a Supporting Role for
‘Mimansa’ was received by his wife Kanchan Bala Das. Best Actress in a supporting role was given away to Mahashweta Roy. Best comedian award was given to Chittaranjan Tripathy while Best Child Artiste award went to Tithirupa Bohidar. The Best Playback Singer (Female) award was handed over to Mahalaxmi Iyer whose secretary received the award on her behalf. Best Playback Singer (Male) award was given away to Sashanka Sekhar Sahu.
Among others present on the occasion were minister Prafulla Samal, MLAs Priyadarshi Mishra and Bijay Kumar Mohanty along with commissioner of Cultural de
partment Manoranjan Panigrahi. In response to the award, singer Pranab Patnaik said he was inspired by the award which will also be an encouragement to the future generation of singers. He suggested that an arts and film academy in Orissa was the need of the times. Actor Mahashweta Roy, who had created a controversy with her remarks after the announcement of awards, pointed out that her two movies ‘Chini’ (best film) and ‘Dele Dhara Katha Sare’ (Best suporting actor) had qualified for awards simultaneously and this made her ‘‘very happy’’.