A poster of Sala Budha

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 24: For 82-year-old theatre artiste Atal Bihari Panda, acting in movies happened by chance. Recently, he won State Film Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Sala Budha.

“Acting in theatre gives me adrenaline rush. I began acting in plays even before independence when I was in Class V. Interestingly, till 1960s I played female roles. Thereafter I began playing versatile characters and also began writing plays,” said Panda.

He has acted in over 100 plays apart from writing over 65 dramas in the Koshali language. He has also written six operas.

The film Sala Budha happened by chance. “Sabyasachi (director of Sala Budha) came to me one day and asked me to write a screenplay based on a few incidents penned down by his father Kapileswar. I readily agreed and we roamed around a number of rural villages across the state,” said the actor.

Atal Bihari Panda. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

“Once that was over, search began for the protagonist of the film. One fine day, Sabyasachi came to me and said he had found his hero and that he was right in front of him,” said Panda.

After Sala Budha, Panda played the role of an 80-year-old man of Kondh tribal community in Adim Vichar. This film was also directed by Sabyasachi Mohapatra. The film has been selected in the Indian panorama category of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Panda and Mohapatra have plans to make three more films based on the lives of the tribal communities in Odisha.

“We want to portray the lives of the tribal people through the films. We are working on the script of our next film. However, we are so overwhelmed by the success of the last two films that the work on the next project has slowed down a bit,” said the elated actor.

Asked if he was enjoying his stint with films, the actor said: “I am extremely overwhelmed and want to act in more films. The success makes me feel young.”

However, theatre would remain his last love. “I want to breathe my last on the stage. There could be no better death than this,” said Panda.