After Mexico, Odia Film ‘Khyanikaa’ To Travel Across Border To Nepal

Bhubaneswar: While Amartya Bhattacharyya’s Odia film ‘Khyanikaa – The Lost Idea’ is all set for a Mexican premiere at the ‘Festival Internacional de Cine con Medios Alternativos’ (FICMA) to be held between November 21 and 24, it has now been officially selected for competition at ‘Nepal Cultural International Film Festival’ to be held at Kathmandu.

Of the four feature films, Khyanikaa is the only Indian film selected for the competition at the festival to be held from November 23 to 26. Of the other three films, two are from Nepal and one from Bangladesh.

Amartya said it felt wonderful to have a regional language Indian independent film find a place at various international platforms. “I am still waiting to see Odisha wake to embrace such films with a passionate heart. Films like Khyanikaa shouldn’t remain niche anymore; they should be everyone’s film. I’ll wait for that day,” he added.

With this festival in Nepal, Khyanikaa reaches its 18^th international film festival across 10 countries. It was the only Odia film at the Indian Panorama of 48^th International Film Festival of India last year. The film earned rave reviews from film critics and at the festival circuit. ‘Khyanikaa’ is the second Odia full-length feature film by Amartya Bhattacharyya, who earlier made the much-talked about film ‘Capital I’.

Meanwhile, Amartya’s latest feature film ‘Runanubandha’ (The HE without HIM) has been selected as one of the three Indian films at the International Competition section of the prestigious 24^th Kolkata International Film Festival, beginning November 10.

Both Khyanikaa and Runanubandha have been produced by Swastik Choudhury of Swastik Arthouse, who also played interesting roles in both the films as an actor.

“The film has done well across the borders and I am happy that this time it is being screened in our neighboring Himalayan Kingdom. More than anything else, for me, an Odia film traveling far and wide is in itself a great success story. I only wish to see more artistic cinema coming out of Incredible Odisha,” Swastik said.

Kisaloy Roy has scored the music for both the films.

‘Khyanikaa’ stars Amrita Chowdhury, Susant Misra, Choudhury Bikash Das, Hrushikesh Bhoi and Dipanwit Dasmohapatra in important characters. Anu Choudhury has an interesting cameo in the film.