No Question Of Giving Away Kalinga Studio Land: Minister

Bhubaneswar: Amid hue and cry over the proposal for a sports complex inside Kalinga Studio premises here, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) minister Prafulla Samal on Monday clarified that the state government, under no circumstances, would hand over the vacant area of the studio to any department or organization.

Talking to the mediapersons here, he said Kalinga Studio is the pride of Odia cine industry and the prime centre of activity for Odisha Film Development Corporation (OFDC).

Asked about the proposal of the Sports and Youth Affairs department to set up a sports complex inside the studio, he said had the Chief Minister made any official statement on this, the matter would have been taken for consideration. Since he has not given any statement so far, no emphasis should be given to this matter.

“As far as I know, the state government has sanctioned about Rs 2 crore for renovation of Kalinga Studio. Efforts are on to make it a state-of-the-art studio on a par with the leading film studios of the country like  RK Studio and Gemini Studio so that the producers from other states would come here to do their film,” Samal said.

Notably, the entire cine industry had vehemently opposed the proposal of the Sports and Youth Affairs department for construction of a sports complex inside the Kalinga Studio premises, on the outskirts of the Odisha capital.

However, the department had later clarified that it was just a suggestion and no decision had been taken in this regard.

“Since the city is growing, we have requested General Administration (GA) Department to identify land patches for setting up sports complex and playgrounds in different parts of the city. The letter about Kalinga Studio was also written with the same objective,” commissioner-cum-secretary, Sports and Youth Services, Vishal Dev had said.

Senior BJP leader and Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday had tweeted that he will take up the matter related to the revival of the defunct Kalinga Studio with the Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and request her to provide financial assistance for infrastructure development of the Kalinga Studio with state-of-the-art technology.