The winners of the 30th Odisha State Film Awards and 7th State Tele Awards were announced by Culture minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi. The award is presented by Odia Language, Literature, and Culture department. The 7th State Tele Awards is awarded in 20 categories with a total cash prize of Rs 3.10 lakh.
Dramatist, lyricist, and screenwriter Bijay Mishra will get Sri Jayadev Award. The award comprises of cash reward of Rs 1 Lakh and a citation. Mishra cited his 50 years of hard work in the industry as the reason he got this award. “Odia industry has undergone a massive transformation in terms of content and technology”, said Mishra. He also pointed out that the present-day cinemas do not have the depth to attract an audience which the past generation of movies had.
The award in the best actor and best actress categories will be awarded to veteran actor Mihir Das and Archita respectively for the movies ‘Bhija Matira Swarga’ and ‘Champion’. The Mihir Das starred film has added other feathers to its cap as Ashutosh Mohapatra gets the best screenplay award. Manoj Mishra has been chosen as the best supporting actor (male) for ‘Champion’ while Shivani Khara is declared the best supporting actor (female) for ‘Pheriaa’. ‘Amage Julie’ bagged the best film in the Tribal Language category.
As for the 7th Tele-film awards, ‘Pension’ gets the award for best telefilm and ‘Rahichi Rahichi To Pain’ was selected as the best Odia teleserial of 2018. Jayanta Santha was conferred with the best actor award for ‘Pension’ and the best actress award was jointly bagged by Sofia Sikandar for ‘Rahichi Rahichi To Pain’ and Sonali Nayak for ‘Kamali’.