Odisha Bids Tearful Adieu To Filmmaker Manmohan Mohapatra

Puri: The mortal remains of eminent Odia filmmaker, producer and director Manmohan Mohapatra was consigned to flames at Swargadwar in Puri with full state honours on Tuesday.

After the body of Mohapatra was brought to Swargadwar from Bhubaneswar this morning, his son Ashutosh Mohapatra performed patha shraddha. Later, he lit the funeral pyre after the state honours were given by the State Police.

The filmmaker passed away at a private hospital on Monday. He was 69. The end came at around 5.15 pm.

Born in 1951, Mohapatra studied film-making at FTII, Pune, and made his first short film, Anti-Memoirs (Anti-Memories) in 1975. His first Odia film Sita Rati as a director in 1976, won him the National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in Odia and was shown at the International Film Festival in 1982, the first Odia film to be screened abroad.

Besides, he had won eight consecutive national film awards for his films Nisiddha Swapna, Majhi Pahacha, Klanta Aparanha, Niraba Jhada, Sita Rati, Bhinna Samaya. The Odia movie Niraba Jhada directed by him had won a national award.

Mohapatra had recently received the Best Director award for the Odia film Bhija Matira Swarga.