post news network, Bhubaneswar, April 24: He stood in front of a camera for one last time sometime in 2006-07 when he acted in the Oriya hit Abhimanyu (released in 2007). The film got rave reviews, but the servitor of the Lord was somehow ‘forgotten’. The man who had till then acted in more than 200 dramas and seven plus Oriya movies saw no offer coming his way. He decided to quit acting altogether and dedicate all his time to the services of the Lord. The 38-year-old Shambhunath Khuntia, had since, apart from discharging his duties as a bodyguard of the Lord Jagannath had set up the Shree Jagannath Devotee Care Centre, an information-providing service to help the devotees who visited the Puri temple. He will, however, face the camera again, after eight long years, in the month of May 2015.
That Khuntia will share screen space with the Italian-American singer Nadia Lanfranconi, actors Jeremy Marr Williams, Kenneth Dixon and Deepika Agarwal in the Sunil Babbar-directed Hollywood movie ‘Melody’ is known to many, but what had not been finalised yet was the date of the shoot that would be done in two phases. Come May 17 the spotlight will be on Khuntia again. The first phase of the shooting of this movie, to be made in English, Hindi and Italian, will be done in Varanasi. For the second and last phase the crew members will travel to Vienna and Los Angeles.
Whether Khuntia will travel to Vienna and beyond has not been decided as yet. However, the actor-turned-servitor-turned-actor has been asked to keep a passport ‘ready’ and he has already applied for it. Khuntia will travel to Varanasi and join his co-stars, Jeremy Marr Williams and Kenneth Dixon on May 15. A 12-day shoot schedule is ready, says Khuntia. Shooting will take place “somewhere on the bank of the Ganges” in the holy city. At present the servitor of the Lord is busy brushing his English diction and phonetics. He is in constant touch with his fellow actors. He had a video chat Thursday with Kenneth Dixon. In the movie he will be playing “the role of a preacher and also the brother of the character played by Kenneth Dixon”. Kenneth is helping him understand his role better. Three days ago Khuntia had a discussion with the lead lady Nadia Lanfranconi. “She is also helping me portray the character better,” the servitor said.
As he waits for his passport, the servitor is memorising his lines. “Filmmaker Sunil Babbar has given me the synopsis of the character I am going to play as also my dialogues early this week,” said Khuntia. In all he will have a screen presence of 30 minutes in the film, he said. After the 12-day first phase of the shooting gets over in Varanasi the servitor may fly to Vienna, and in all likelihood he would for the second phase of the shooting.
As already mentioned Sambhunath Khuntia is a servitor of the Jagannath Temple. “All the Khuntias serve as bodyguards to the Deities, and without their permission, devotees cannot enter the door of the inner sanctum of the temple to have darshana, or sight of the Deities,” is how Somnath Kuntia one of the priests of the Jagannath Temple in Puri, described the role of the Khuntias in a book written by him sometime ago.
“Though I am a servitor in the Puri temple, acting is something which I love to do. From childhood I had a passion for acting and to fulfil that I started taking active part in different plays organised during different festivals,” said Sambhunath, who joined Geetinatika, a dance drama group in the servitor colony at the age of 15 and used to play the role of Krishna there. In 1988 he joined “one of the oldest theatre of the state Annapurna and was associated with it for 18 years”. Kula Chandrama, and Chidia Khana are some of the popular dramas in which he had played a lead role. “Though I never had any formal training in acting but in 1992 I took a few training sessions on acting in an acting school in Bhubaneswar,” he said.
The eight-odd Oriya movies that Sambhunath has acted in include, Jay Jagannath, Odia Pua, Dhauli Express, Mukhyamantri and the hit Abhimanyu, his last movie. “I used to play all kinds of roles – from mythological characters to modern characters – in dramas based on social stories. Acting is something which gives me satisfaction, so whenever I got an opportunity I acted,” said Khuntia.
Talking about Melody he said, “It is a musical which begins in the year 1916, at the times of the Second World War and travels to the present time and will be made in Hindi, English and Italian languages. The movie will basically revolve around love, religion and music.”
That the same Lord for whom he gave up acting to serve him better had given him the opportunity to act again became clear from the anecdote he shared. The way in which he met the Hollywood filmmaker Sunil Babbar is coincidence personified. “Months back Sunil came to the Puri temple and because of his looks, the priest in the temple thought that he was a foreigner and didn’t allow him to enter the temple. I interacted with him to know about the purpose of his visit. At that time I was wearing the traditional attire of a servitor (chhamu). Looking at my dress he asked whether I could act or not and I told him that I was also a theatre artist,” Sambhunath said.
He is glad to be back in front of cameras. “I am glad that finally, after a wait of eight years, I got an opportunity to act in a film and that too in a Hollywood movie. It will be a great opportunity to interact with artists from other parts of the world and I think it will help me learn about the working style of Hollywood and it would be a great learning experience,” said Khuntia.
Before signing off Sambhunath, however, did not forget to mention his acting guru. “Whatever I am today is all because of my guru Ramachandra Pratihari, who helped develop my acting skills and always motivated me to believe in myself,” he said.
