Bhubaneswar: The 31st State Film Awards were presented at a function organised by Odia Language Literature and Culture Department here at Utkal Mandap, Monday. Noted film director Ghanashyam Mohapatra was conferred with prestigious Jaydev honour, the highest cine award of Odisha. He received Rs 2 Lakh cash prize and a citation. Nila Madhab Panda went home with the Best Director’s award for his movie Kalira Atita which was also adjudged the Best Film of the year.
For the same movie, Pitobash Tripathi received the Best Actor award while Shivani Sangita Sarangi got Best Actress Award for Babu Bhaijaan. Late Kapileshwar Prasad got Best Story award for Sala Budhara Badla while late Raju Mishra was posthumously given the award for Best Music. Swayam Padhi received the Best Playback Singer award (Male) while Diptirekha Padhi got the award in the Female category. The best child artist award went to Mayank for Ranga Barrsiba Tupur Tupur.
Earlier, taking strong exceptions to plagiarism in the film business, Orissa High Court directed to declare the 31st Odisha State Film Award, 2019 again in one month as previously selected Odia films were found heavily copied from other language films. Bobby Islam, a filmmaker, had moved Orissa HC alleging that many of the films that featured in the final selection list for the 31st Odisha State Film Award, 2019 were remakes of some films made in other languages, which should not have qualified for the awards in the first place.