The shooting of her latest documentary over, Projna lets her hair down at home. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

A rebellious child, an energetic teenager, an understanding mother, an awesome homemaker and a sensitive film director are just a few ways of describing Biyot Projna Tripathy.

Clad in a T-shirt and a flowing skirt, her lithe frame defies her age and camouflages the fact that she is a mother of two grown-up children. Born to an educationist father and a social worker mother, Tripathy attributes her success to her “different upbringing”.

Although most of her schooling years were spent in Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack, she never fails to mention Ertal, a coastal village in Orissa where she was born. Having passed her matriculation at the age of 13 Projna shifted to Cuttack for her intermediate and bachelors degree. Literature was her favourite subject and a honours in English was the natural choice.

In college, apart from studies she excelled in theatre, sports, and also earned a name for herself as a budding poet and short story writer. Popular among teachers and students she was elected the general secretary of her college union although she made it a point to stay away from mainstream politics.

After graduation she completed her MA in political science. Her clear mind and gift of gab made the legal profession an ideal career option. So Tripathy completed her LLB from Madhusudan Law College, Cuttack. However, before she could practise she was married of to Bibekananda Tripathy and shifted with her medico husband a year later to Mumbai, where she tried her hand at teaching. But the system of examination did not please her and so she left her first job. “I was never ambitious and had no plans of pursuing a career. Earning a livelihood was the last thing on my mind,” she said.

While in Mumbai their first daughter was born. In 1988, the Tripathys shifted base to Jamshedpur and this was where she donned the black gown for the first time. Despite being a successful criminal lawyer she quit practice after a couple of years when her second daughter was born. “My family comes first. It was a very natural step for me to quit my job as I wanted to be involved in my daughters’ upbringing,” says Projna.

Moreover she says that her job wasn’t satisfying. “Somewhere my freedom of expression was being stifled,” says Projna.

Back home most of her time was spent with her daughters, but she never stopped reading. A voracious reader, even today she reads anything she can lay her hands on. But Tolstoy and Gopinath Mohanty remains are her favourite.

While in her early-30s, Projna’s desire to do something different saw her puruing a course at the Pune Film Institute. Her daughters had grown up and with the support of her husband she enrolled herself on a film appreciation course. “My short stay at the Film Institute were spent studying cinema and sleeping. The course that I opted for helped me to understand the finer nuances of cinema,” she said.

On why she chose cinema to express herself, the director said: “Cinema is a subtle and at the same strong medium of expression. It reaches out to a number of people. Language is barely an impediment in the world of cinema. Whatever language you choose to express your views in they invariably get noticed thanks to the visual media.”

“I always knew that Projna would excel in whatever she did. She is extremely hard-working and dedicated. She juggled her passion for films and her home front superbly,” said Projna’s husband.

Her daughters are proud of their mother’s achievements. “I am extremely proud that my mother is doing something different in life,” said Projna’s younger daughter, a Class IX student.

Projna’s foray into documentaries began in 2000 with Jejema a short 17-minute film on her grandmother. This was followed by her documentary, “Mahakumbh — A Spiritual Journey”, which beautifully captured the magic of Kumbh Mela.

Her documentaries on Ladakh won her accolades at film festivals in the country and abroad. While, “Khamzam Yodan” was nominated for an award, “Ladakh — The Land of Mystery”, a 44-minute documentary, won her the second best film prize at the Mumbai International Film Festival.

But awards is not what this lady is vying for. “If my work get appreciated then there is nothing like it. It gives me the impetus to excel. But at the end of the day what’s important is the freedom to express myself,” says Projna, who recently finished her latest documentary, “Sadheikala Chhau — A Different Civilization”.

Projna plans to direct feature films only when she gets a “script to die for”. She refuses to be type cast into a particular genre of filmmaking and this is the reason why she makes it a point to work on various issues. But she is not averse to mainstream cinema, be it of the Bollywood or Hollywood kind. Akira Kurosawa and Rithik Ghatak are her personal favourites. Though Citizen Kane is her favourite film, she considers it unjust to single out as single movie or director as favourite.

When she’s not shooting documentaries, Projna teaches film appreciation at the Karim CityCollege. A sensitive filmmaker, Projna, eats, sleeps and dreams cinema. The lady believes that to serve the people one does not necessarily have to be a social worker. Her service to society is through films, a medium which brings important issues to the forefront. An exmaple in point being her short film, “Hawa Mithai”, where she tried to portray the way corruption has creeped into society.

“Films can bring about a revolutionary change only if the problems are honestly depicted,” said Projna.

Sweta Dutta