monalisa patsani
post news network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 8: Oriyas who have made a name for themselves in the Hindi film industry are many. Twenty-nine-year-old Sisir Kumar Sahu from Binjhabhal in Keonjhar is a recent addition to that group.
Sisir worked as an assistant director in ‘Mohenjo Daro’, the Hrithik Roshan starrer directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. He has had the chance to work with renowned director Shyam Benegal on ‘Samvidhan: The Making of the Constitution’ for the Rajya Sabha channel. He was also assistant director of ‘Zed Plus’.
Sisir found working with Ashutosh very different from his experience with Benegal. He says he “enjoyed working with Ashutosh more”.
It was not the first time Sisir had worked with Ashutosh, though. “I have assisted him in the television series ‘Everest’,” he says.
The assistant director also found Ashutosh a “down to earth” person, who assigned responsibilities to people irrespective of their experience. “He believes in grooming people and often says a person learns and becomes responsible only by making mistakes. He would conduct meetings every day and ask each person there about what needs to be done and takes suggestions from everyone,” Sisir recalls.
It is also perhaps why he found the sets of ‘Mohenjo Daro’ a place of learning. “I learned a lot during the filming. The environment was very different with enormous sets. After the filming was completed, Ashutosh asked me ‘How’s everything’ and I said I am still in BC-2016 (the period the film is set in).”
The film also offered Sisir a chance to hone his culinary skills and to share Oriya cuisine with the film crew. “Ashutosh used to ask members of the crew from different states to cook food native to their states. I made bodi chura, sag, fried fish and dahi pakhalo. I guided the chef to prepare all the Oriya food items and served them. They particularly liked dahi pakhalo as it soothed the stomach in the searing heat,” he said.
For Sisir, the toughest part of his work was filming a duel. “It is the scene in which the hero fights two giants of cannibals. We had to shoot that multiple times and had to capture each reaction and emotion and different perspectives,” he said. Sisir holds a degree in film editing from Biju Patnaik Film and Television Institute. After passing out in 2011, he went to Mumbai to chase his dreams.
“Everybody dreams of becoming a Raj Kumar Hirani or Shyam Benegal, I was no different. After moving to Mumbai I struggled for a year. I went from one person to another with my CV, wrote numerous e-mails; I even got cheated by some. Then one day I got this call to work in ‘Samvidhan’ with Shyam Benegal and since then there has been no stopping.”
Among the people he was conned by, Sisir recalled one incident in particular. “Once I went to meet this person. He looked me head to toe and asked me to remove my wrist watch. He took my watch because his was broken and went wearing it to impress someone else. It is funny in hindsight.”
Sisir now nurtures dreams of becoming a director. “I am working on a documentary on Raja festival. Filming has been completed and work is on getting expert opinions,” he said, and added, “I have not worked in Oriya film industry yet but I hope in future I would come up with some good story idea. At present I am concentrating on establishing myself in Mumbai.”
