The Journey of OLLYWOOD or the lack thereof

The Odia film industry, colloquially known as Ollywood, is the Odia language Indian film industry, based in Cuttack, Odisha, India. Although the Odia film industry couldn’t probably be considered as rich as some of the regional cinema industry out there, it has chartered a long journey since it first came into existence, releasing no less than 600 movies so far.

Now, Odisha has been famous for many things- The stunning architectures, history, dialects, vibrant art music and dance forms, but the Odia Cine industry is not one of them. The first Odia film ‘Sita Bibaha’ was released about 25 years after ‘Raja Harishchandra’ and five long years after the release of the first Hindi talkie ‘Alam Ara’. The 12- reel film, a mythological story taken from the “Ramayana”, was based on a drama written by Kamapal Mishra. Makhanlal Banerjee essayed the lead role accompanied by Prabhabati Devi as Sita and Aditya Ballav Mohanty as Laxman. As we progress, we get to see the many inconsistencies of Odia cinema- one being the second Odia movie releasing 15 years after the first.

After the classical era, the ’70s and the ’80s were the golden era of Odia cinema when films on social themes were essayed to critical acclaim as well as commercial success. The films were held aloft as social mirrors of their time and served as active agents of change.

The eleventh Odia film, Sri Lokanath, was directed by Prafulla Sengupta and received the National Award in 1960.

The same year, Prasanta Nanda won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Odia

for his debut film, Nua Bou. Nanda won National Awards three times, in 1960, 1966 and 1969 for his acting in Nua Bou, Matir Manisha and Adina Megha.

Mohammad Mohsin started the revolution in the Odia film industry by not only securing the essence of the Odia culture but also changing the way the film industry watched Odia movies. Phoola Chandana was written by Ananda Sankar Das. His movies heralded the golden era of the Odia film industry by bringing in freshness to Odia movies.

It was also an era when many prominent lead actors such as Sriram Panda, Bijay Mohanty and Uttam Mohanty came into limelight. Dukhiram Swain, Ajit Das and Hara Pattnaik as the loathsome and feared villains also left an indelible mark on the minds of cine-goers while actresses like Jharana Das, Mahasweta and Aparajita were the unchallenged reigning silver screen queens of that era.

While it may seem like things are going well for Ollywood, it can’t be farther away from the truth. Over the years Odia cinema has been churning out remakes and copies of films from other languages. There has been an acute lack of creativity and these remakes are slowly eroding the base of the industry. The main problem, however, is quite evident- the Odia cinema has lost its culture and moved away from the roots.

While many Odias can proudly recognize the melody of Akshaya Mohanty’s ‘ei je bana lata pahara’, the same cannot be said about recent Ollywood songs. Such is the fallen footing of Odia cinema.

It’s safe to say that the Odia film industry lags in marketing. The mainstay of any film industry is its audience, which Odia cinema has lost. There has been a cultural divide where the lower and the upper-middle-class have a distinct interest. No doubt the socio-economic and political scenario directly or indirectly influences the choice of the audience. The industry has somehow become oversaturated with little to no serious filmmaking. We simply cannot compare Ollywood to Bollywood in any shape or form.

In recent years, we have seen a gentle surge in Odia artists such as Sambit Mohanty and

Sabyasachi Mohapatra who have given us movies like ‘Hello Arshi’ and ‘Pahada ra Luha’. These films have begged national acclaim suggesting things might not be worse. Only recently Ollywood has started making women-centric films like ‘Durgatinashini’ starring Archita Sahu, who portrayed a strong female lead with substance.

Although the future of Ollywood may look bleak right now, there is some hope left. As an Odia, I sincerely hope it gets better because let's be real, it can only get better from now on.