His recognition as an actor came a shade late in life but he has no complaints. It took almost 11 years for the audience and critics to take notice of Aman , thanks to his power-packed performance in Shailendra Parida’s Odia flick Katha Deli Matha Chhuin. Since then there has been no looking back for the actor.
His recent role in Chhabirani, based on the infamous gangrape of Chhabi Rani in 1980 that sent shockwaves across the state, has been appreciated by all and sundry. Aman, who plays the protagonist in the film, is also excited about Chhabirani becoming the first Odia film to be selected for screening in Boston November 23. In a candid chat with Orissa POST, Aman shares his journey from a struggling actor to a star.
Aman, who hails from Dhenkanal, was smitten by the acting bug at an early age. “I used to visit my village during summer vacations. The villagers used to perform Ramlila, which I enjoyed watching. However, the ones selected to play the characters had to follow strict rules. They had to stay in a separate place for 16 days and were not allowed to have home-cooked food. Their meal would be cooked separately. I enjoyed that ambience and gradually fell in love with acting. Every time I watched a film, I used to put myself in the shoes of the hero,” he says. Aman was also good at sports and had played cricket at the state level, besides representing his district in kho kho and badminton. However, he enjoyed acting more than anything.
“I was confused about whether to make a career in sports or acting. My first brush with acting was as a minor character in a play. I was in Class VII then. Gradually, I started doing more plays but most of the roles were very insignificant,” he says.
Given that creative arts and literature have always been held in high regard in his family, acting happened spontaneously to Aman. “My mother and grandfather are prominent authors, while my father and uncle are into acting, although they rarely act these days. I was on cloud nine when I was selected to play Lord Rama in Ramlila for the first time,” he says, adding, “I decided to become an actor when I was still in college. I joined veteran actor Ajit Das’s theatre group Abhinaya Jagruti Institute of Theatre and another institute in Dhenkanal to brush up my acting skills. I completed by graduation and started pursuing MBA. Simultaneously, I also kept doing plays, where I was fast gaining popularity.”
Aman next decided to crack the entrance exam at National School of Drama. However, despite four attempts, he failed to secure a seat at the coveted institute. That said, he didn’t return empty handed from there. “While trying my luck at NSD, I came across theatre personalities like Himani Shivpuri, Seema Biswas, Gunakar Dev Goswami and attended their workshops at Guwahati, Kolkata and Hyderabad. At the same time, my struggle continued in the Odia film industry. That was a time when my confidence had hit rock bottom. It was Himani Shivpuri, who gave my confidence a boost. She told me, ‘You don’t need to secure a seat in NSD to become a good actor. It is just a tag. NSD produces 26 actors every year, while 26,000 try their luck in indi films annually and many among them also succeed.”
Aman finally made up his mind to enroll himself in Roshan Taneja School of Acting but life had something different in store for him. “There I met writer Kiran Bhatnagar’s daughter Rashi, who told me that if every
wants to do Hindi films, what will happen to regional films. Her words created an impact on me and I decided to come back to Odisha,” he says.
However, his struggle continued. Continuous rejections in the absence of a godfather in the industry, almost made Aman quit the industry. So much so, that he was almost about to join a multi-national company in Hyderabad when a chance meeting with an industry insider changed his life. “I told him that I have been struggling for 11 years. He said that he struggled for 16 years but never lost hope. He recommended my name to a producer but I was again rejected. Dejected I left for Hyderabad. However, I had to come back after a few days to collect a few documents when this well-wisher called me again. This time he recommended my name for another film. It was for the second lead but after my screen test I was finalised as the protagonist. And this is how Katha Deli Matha Chhuin happened,” he says.
Today, Aman has attained the popularity that he had dreamt of for years. The actor has been part of 59 plays that have been performed on more than 1,200 occasions. He also has quite a few lucrative projects in the pipeline. “I am already in the middle of shooting of an Odia film. Bollywood sound engineer Subash Sahu will soon be directing an Odia film. I am playing the lead in his film. There is another bilingual film opposite Shradha,” he says, adding, “I don’t want to compete with anyone nor imitate anyone. I want to set a benchmark and want to be different from others,” he says. Rashmi Rekha Das, OP
