Gloria Mohanty is a household name in Odisha as she has set a benchmark for her in Ollywood industry. The age has no effect on her work and she is going strongly at her 90’s and acting in tele serials and movies also. The age has surrendered before the veteran actress as she is a busy actress now-a-days also.
Gloria born on June 27, 1932 in Cuttack. At her early childhood days, she was initiated into dance and music by her aunt and eminent actress Anima Pedini. Pedini recognised her talent and her talent in dance that finally brought into acting at the theatre and cinema. She also taught Odissi under prominent Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. She taught music at the National Music Association, Cuttack, along with her friend Sunanda Patnaik. Her music teachers were Gurus Kundala Adi Narayan, Balakrushna Dash, Bhubaneswar Mishra and Beena Debi. She was a reputed singer of All India Radio, Cuttack, for long 20 years.
At the age of 14, she debuted in theatre in the play ‘Bhata’ as an lead actress against Gour Prasad Ghosh in the year 1944. It was Kabichandra Kali Charan Patnaik who introduced Gloria into theatre. And for the next 16 years, she featured in more than 100 plays in Odia, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and English which were staged in major metros like Calcutta and New Delhi besides in Odisha. She was very good athlete also as she also represented the state women’s Volleyball team.
Gloria started her silver screen journey in 1950 with the path-breaking film “Sri Jagannath” as the heroine Lalita. It was a huge hit and gave her lot of mileage to her as an actress. Later, she featured in films like Kedar Gouri, Maa, Sitarati, Taapoi, Tapasya, Ulka, Janani, Chhamana Athaguntha and Adi Mimansa. Today, at the age of 90, she is still actively involved with the film and television industry as a busy actress. She has acted in more than 25 Odia movies. She has bagged many awards for her brilliant acting skills.

Shri Rajgopal Mishra well known as Raju Mishra who was honored with 9th Fitfat Bioscope Award 2012 on 9th December at Shahid Bhawan Cuttack, is a versatile Director, an adroit Cinematographer, & Music Director who is esteemed among viewers and the film industry over decades.

Right from his childhood he has come across a lot of creative people as both his parents father late Shri. BimalKishore Mishra and mother late Smt. Sumati Devi were performing artists of repute, who performed and taught traditional, classical and folk music. His mother had been a famous radio artist for thirty years. He was ardent to do something in the creative field till he decided to become a film maker, his journey has been a fabulous one. After graduating from Film & Television Institute of India Pune in 1977 with flying colors he tried a small stint with the television training center there. Late Mr.Bhaskar Chandavarkar the music professor of FTII gave him his first break as a cameraman in a marathi film. He actually wrote the story and screenplay for the film late Smita Patil was the leading lady of the film. The film got a couple of national and state awards. Before that Raju Mishra’s student diploma film along with Manjul Sinha and David Dhawan had got into the prestigious Indian Panorama section of the International film festival. Manjul a very sensitive director went into the advertising industry and later on did famous serials like “ye jo hai zindagi”. David went into the bombay industry as an editor where as Raju Mishra who always wanted to be a film maker straight away opted for Odisha. The reason he felt was making money in Mumbai as a Cinematographer would have killed his ambitions as because it would have taken a couple of years there in Mumbai without a godfather there and that would have been a waste of time.

So the career had to be in Odisha. Luckily for him Mr. Debabrata Kar and friends like Binod Mishra and Surya Mishra helped him to start his career as a film maker and the film was “Ulka”. May be the subject and making was a little ahead of time so the commercial results were not encouraging. However the cinematography and music of the film were widely appreciated by one and all. It is still a landmark film as far as these things are concerned. In fact the state award for cinematography started with Mr. Raju Mishra getting the first award.

Time supposed be the greatest teacher, taught Raju Mishra the lesson of surviving the commercial film industry in Odisha. There was no looking back him. A couple of films like “Janani” and “Jaga Hatare Pagha” as cinematographer and he was back in the commercial arena with his own story screenplay and cinematography for the film “Mamata Maage Mula”. The film was a thundering success. The success continued with films like “Jor Jaar Mulak Tar”. The background music was by Raju Mishra where as songs were composed by late Akshay Mohanty the great KhokaBhai. The film broke all possible records at the box office. Followed films like “Pua Mora Kala Thakura”, “Chaka Aakhi Sabu Dekhuchi”, “Aasuchi Mo Kalia Suna” with resounding success proving Raju Mishra was not a fluke. Film after film followed. Time and again Raju Mishra proved that he had the audience support for him. An artist always feels to communicate to his audience what he has felt in his heart about a story or a subject. Raju Mishra always takes inspiration from real life incidents though the above mentioned highly successful films were larger than life fantasies he opted for making a film like “Sata Micha”. The film had story screen play cinematography direction and music by “Raju Mishra”. The characters and incidents in the film were inspired by true incidents and living real characters. To Raju Mishra’s surprise he received state awards for story, photography and direction simultaneously. It was realy inspiring for him. He believes Film Making is a team work and the team has to coordinate share the same vibrations and wavelength to come out successful. It is very difficult to always find like minded people to work with, this was the only reason Raju Mishra opted for almost all the core branches of film making to speak his heart out but whenever the team consisted of like minded thinking people he shared the honors with them. The journey is very long. It is a long 35 years of career with dozens of films, short films, ad films tele serials etc. Raju Mishra has been humbled that God endowed him with special blessings to gain the audio visual power to communicate. This is the major reason for his success. Whenever Raju Mishra operates the camera for any audio visual work his distinctive style comes through. Thats the reason he got four assamese films achieve national recognition and the same number for Odia and Marathi language films. His visuals are rich with so much communicative power that sometimes they dont need the help of literature or music. This is a gift of God to him which he keeps practicing in the field since last 35 years. Padma Shri Manoj Das’s short story “Laxmi Ra Abhisara” attained great cinematic heights through his vision. It received 9 out of 14 awards given by the state of Odisha every year. His recent works like “Dear Sir” a tele film and above all Fakir Mohan’s Chha Mana Aatha Guntha in a tele series will be remembered forever for their aesthetic value.

His eye and ear for discovering new talents is phenomenal. Over 3 decades he has given odia film industry artists and technicians who are now very well established and very big names themselves. Many senior Ollywood citizens remember Raju Mishra as a great mentor. This came through from Rachna Bannerjee’s statement during Bioscope Awards. She said Raju Mishra is my true mentor who taught me ABC of acting and am oblidged. This ABC took her to become one of the heroins of AB of bollywood thats Amitabh Bachan. Thanks Guru Raju Mishra the Dronacharya of Odia Film Industry. May God bless you Raju sir to live long enough to discover many more artists and talented technicians for our film industry.

Though Sabyasachi Mohapatra has few Odia films in his kitty, he has created a special place for him in the Odia movie world as a director, producer and also a writer. He came to limelight after his internationally acclaimed film Bhukha.He has also set up a production house named Mohapatra Movie Magic in collaboration with his other four brothers.
Sabyasachi Mohapatra was born to Kapileshwar Mohapatra. He was a meriotorious student as he bagged scholarship in highschool level. He completed his seventh class from Deogan M.E. School and High School from Pritviraj High School(Balangir). After matriculation, he joined Gajendra College. In his college career, he showed his interest towards drama and participated in different college functions. His association with drama and theater increased when he did law from Sambalpur and involved more in the field. His father is his source of his inspiration as he(his father) introduced him to acting. His intial stage performances were done under the affectionate guidance of his beloved father. His towards film grew and he used to visit cinema halls along with his father. But, destiny played a crucial role in his life and finanicial burden took a toll on him and his family was badly hit by 1975 famine and he started his own business.
His film journey started accidently when Sadhu Meher asked his assistance for the film Abhim aan him. He debuted as a director in a feature film in the Kosali Language ,titled as Bhuka with the help of his four brothers.The film was screened and got International Jury Award at Gijon Film festival.This bought him much cherished fame and recognition.
He then worked in films like jhili ,Bou, Bahudibe Mo Jaga Balia. His mega budget mythological film – Jai Jaganath was released in 15 different Indian languages. He also wrote the stories of films like Bou, Bahusibe Mo Jaga Balia and Jai Jagannath and he made the film Jhili as a producer.

The multi-talented Sarat Pujari is one of the noted actors as well as directors of Ollywood industry. The veteran actor created a niche in the industry with his spell-bound acting skills, especially doing character roles. He left government service for the sake of his passion, film.
Sarat was born on August 8, 1934 at Nayagarh. As his father was a government employee, Sarat has to change from school to school with transfer of his father to the different parts of the State. He completed post graduation in Economics and completed Diploma in Paintings from Allahabad University in 1956. Sarat Pujari started his career as a block designer and Publicity agent. In 1959, he joined as lecturer in Economics in Panchayat College,Bargarh. The year 1966 was very crucial for him as he left the service and acted as a free-lance film actor from September 1966 to September 1968 to learn the technique of film-making.
He kicked off his silver screen journey through the film Laxmi Puja. He was offered a role in the film. After that there was no looking back. But, he came to limelight though the movie Matira Manisa in 1966. He mesmerized the Odia audience through the character Baraju. In the same year, he also acted in Kaa and his next movie was Arundhati which was released in 1967. He has acted in about 40 films, besides few television serials. He has also directed few Odia movies like Tapoi,Ashanta Graha, Astaranga, etc. He also acted in movies like Andha Diganta, Bhukha, Drusti, Aranya Rodan, Aranyaka, Sesha Drusti, etc. He was conferred with the honourary Jayadev Aaward of 1985″ for his significant contribution to Odia film industry. He also was honored with first Hemant Das Kala Samman Award, Kadambini Samman Awards for 2010 & Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award for the year 200. He played a negative character in the International award winning movie Bhukha in 1989. Presently, he occasionally acts in films and television serials.

He needs no introduction. He is a household name in Odisha. He is one of the brightest stars in the sky of Ollywood. He gave a new shape to Ollywood and set a new trend in Odia film industry. He has also completed a long 30 years in Ollywood and contributed a lot for the boosting of Odia cinema world. He is also aptly called as the star maker of Ollywood as he helped many stars to venture into silver screen. Hara Pattanaik was born on October 12, 1958, is an actor, director and screenplay writer.
He started his film career in 1977 as an assistant director to Sisir Mishra for the film “Suna Sansara”. He appeared first as an actor in 1985 in the film Sahari Bagha. But he ventured into the role of director in 1990 through the movie “Daiba Daudi”. He has never looked back from then and continued his strong presence in “Ollywood. He brings modernity and remake system to the industry. “Pardesi Babu” is his first movie to get released in West Bengal in 1999.
He is well known for his terrific characterization & extraordinary screen-play. He loves to do experiments in film making by taking many risks. But the end result proves that he is talented enough to convert the risks into opportunities. His films like I love you, Pagal Premi, Kalki Abatar, Ganga Jamuna, Daiba Daudi, Kapala Likhana, Pua Mora Bhola Sankara have created many mile stones in the film industry as well as at box office.
He has gifted many stars to both Ollywood and Tollywood including Mihir das, Anubhab, Sabyasachi, Ritwek, Rachana Banarjee, Namrata Thappa, Smita Mohanty, Rekha Rao, Satwaki Mishra and Braja Singh. He has made many successful technicians too. He acted in many movies like Jor Jaar Mulak Tar, Suna Chadhei, Chhati Chiri Dele Tu, Kurukheta and many more. His latest release movie is Oam Sai Ram. He defeated cancer and recovered from the disease and reentered to Ollywood. The highly acclaimed director has been awarded with many awards for his contribution to Ollywood.

The noted singer-cum-music director tried his hand in Odia films, modern albums and bhajan cassettes. The lyricist who is established in Cuttack is good at penning down romantic songs. He is only music director in recent times who is an all-rounder in music. He occasionally sings in his films.
Abhijit Majumdar hails from Sambalpur and later he came to Cuttack in search making career in music. His early days are very struggling for him as he started his struggle by arranging music for others. Then he got some opportunities to compose music for some cassettes. Initially, he did not get success as a composer as his albums were flopped. After his cassettes flopped, he lost his confidence over himself and made his mind to return to his home city Sambalpur.
But God has other plan for him. At that time a bhajan cassette ‘Nadia Rani’ became a hit and popular among Odia people. A song ‘Nadia re lagithau kata, lo gaja mukuta’ composed by him from this album got him recognition and gave him a very good mileage. This devotional songs album produced by Sarthak Music.
After that Abhijit made a own style of music and recognized by Odia listeners for his signature style of songs like Tora Krushna Chuda Rangara, Ae Salu, Mausi Ghara bhada Daba Ki etc. He made a modern album for Sartahk Music ‘Prathama Dekha’ which was a big hit. He has composed songs for movies like Kasia Kapila, Rakhiba Jadi Se Maariba Kie, Mo Suna Pua, Munna: A Love Story, o Bina Bhala Lagena, Subha Vivaha, Sasura Ghara Zindabad, Om Namaha Shivaya, Tu Tha Mun Jauchi Rushi, Balunga Toka, Kichhi Khata Kichhi Mitha,Matric Fail, Rangeela Toka etc. Now a days Abhijit has made the music market warm enough by his songs and compositions. Currently, he has been busy with many projects at Ollywood.

The Kolkata-based actress who gradually replacing our memories of Rachana Banerjee, has tried her hand both in Bengali and Odia cinema industry and stunned the filmmakers and audience with her power of acting, skills and zeal. The hot diva is also a top model. Before venturing into silver screen, she was into modeling.
Megha born on July 11, 1987, completed her schooling from Nagendra Smriti Girls High School- Kolkata and her college from Bhairab Ganguly College based in Kolkata. Megha has done her Diploma in acting from Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Lab, Mumbai.
The ambitious actress made her debut in films in the year 2007 with a South-Indian movie “Yuga Yuga Gale Saagali”. She started her career in Odia movie industry with the movie Love.Com opposite Sabyasachi Mishra, directed and produced by Rahat Quddusi. Her first Bengali movie was Prem Ek Paribaar in 2009. The last movie Megha had been seen in Odia was Dosti by Ashok Pati. She also appeared in a guest appearance in Susant Mani’s thriller Luchakali. The next movie of Megha which is releasing this month is ‘Mu Ashiq Mu Awara’.

Budhaditya Mohanty is one of the brightest stars in Ollywood. After doing many serials in Hindi Television Industry, the actor-cum-anchor has proved his mettle in the Odia cinema industry. He made his silver screen journey in 2002 through a nationalized TV seria Kumkuml. From then, he has never looked back, going strongly day by day.
The actor born on January 17, 1978 at Shaikh Bazaar in Cuttack, the Silver City, completed his schooling from Stewart School, Cuttack. He completed his college study at the prestigious Ravenshaw College and then his higher studies from Delhi University. Budhaditya started his acting career from the hindi movie Hai Santoshi Maa, then as a TV serial actor in 2002 through famous TV serial Kumkum. He then acted in serials like Pratima (2004), Meher (2007), Waaris (2008) and Kaya Hua Tera Vaada.
He started his Ollywoodcareer in 2007 through I Love My India, a patriotic movie, against the Mumbai-based actress Namrata Thappa. His second movie Nandini I Love You was super hit and in this movie he shared screen space with veteran Odia actor-cum-politician Siddhant Mohanty. Then he acted in movies like Pagala Karichhi Paunji Tora, Prem Rogi, and Loafer. His upcoming movies are Om Sai Ram and Sangam. Along with acting in movies and serials, he is also a very good anchor who is conducting shows for the local channels. Sadhaba Bohu of Taranga TV is a well appreciated work of Budhaditya. He also writes column on Indian and Odia cinema for newspapers. His favourite pastimes are reading books, watching movies and watching television series. He likes to read books on history, cinema, biography and Sidney Sheldon novels. His favourite movies are Karz, Qurbani, Don, Satte Pe Satta, Sholay, Qurbani, Kaala Pathar and Yaadon Ki Baaraat.
Budhaditya’s lastest movie which happens to be the comeback movie of Hara Patnaik as well is going to be released on September 14 this year.

The noted filmmaker and director Biplab Roy Choudhury who tried his hand in Hindi, Bengali and Odia, breathed his last in Kolkata on August 14, 2012 due to old age related ailments. Choudhury had received the presidential award Rajat Kamal for his debut directorial venture ‘Chillika Tire’. The phenomenal director preferred to make more movies in Odia rather than his mother tongue Bengali. The famous director distanced himself from so called glamour of movie world.
He born on October 6, 1942 and his passion for film prevails him to leave medical education in middle. He began his career as an assistant director under the guidance of the then-famous editor and director Ardhendu Chatterjee. After having worked as assistant editor in around 20 feature films, he became an independent editor, scriptwriter and director of films in three different Indian languages in 1968. His first directorial film, Barna Bibarna was released in 1975, in Bengali. He did not get much success through the film.
Over his three-decade career, he made around 14-15 short films and documentaries and approximately ten feature films in Bengali, Odiaand Hindi. He was also Head of the Department of Direction at the Satyajit Ray Films Films and Television Institute and later he was appointed as one of the members of the Biju Patnaik Film and Television Institute.
Most of the plots of his movies were based on the society and social stigmas with an aim to create awareness among people. He chose a very challenging piece of literature for his film Shodh (Hindi) adapted from Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Garam Bhat O Nichhok Bhooter Golpo. The film bagged two National Awards in 1980 – for the Best Feature Film and for the Best Cinematography by Rajan Kinagi. After Chilka Tire, he did Aranya Rodan and Nirvachana. .” Nirbachana (1994) won the National Award for the Best Feature Film on Environment.