Guest Column Anubhav Mohanty

Life is a tumultuous journey, and I have had my share of ups and downs. A couple of years ago, a section of people in the Odia film industry hatched a conspiracy against me. They thought of banning me for a year. Being an emotional person, I was deeply hurt and felt let down. I thought that good work probably never pays off. However, I tried to take this in my stride and handled the situation diplomatically, though I am not a diplomatic person.

Fortunately, luck favoured me as all plans to pull me down boomeranged. The people, who wanted to ban me, failed to make films for a year and I went on to deliver hits at the box office. The appreciation of the audience and support of my fans helped me come out of the situation, unscathed and more mature. I was going through one of the worst phases of my life, but my fans never stopped believing in me. It is their love that always inspires me to do well and I feel sorry whenever I am unable to respond to their calls or text messages.

Let me go back in time and tell you, very briefly, how films happened for me. As a kid, I wanted to join the Indian Army. Everything about a soldier - the military fatigues, the badges, rifles fascinated me. But, I never wanted to work under anyone, as I wanted to do something on my own.

I started modelling during my college days and thought I had a good chance at acting. So, I gave music albums a shot. However, my family members told me I was making a bad career choice, as the Odia film industry then was not the way it is now - lucrative. Fortunately, I got noticed and several offers came my way. There was no looking back after that. I feel it was all destined. I still remember the release of my first film I Love You, which was greatly appreciated by all. I have had the honour of working with so many wonderful, talented people and senior artistes, including Rachna (Banerjee) didi. I also love working with Varsha Priyadarshini. She has been a very supportive co-actor. I have great respect for her. People have often labelled me as the most eligible bachelor of the film industry here and keep on asking whether marriage is on the cards for me.

Even my parents have been after me; they wanted me to settle down in life as soon as possible. To be very honest, though I am ready, marriage is something, which is not in my hands. Moreover, I have some other plans before I settle down. I have a lot of energy, confidence and power to think. I believe in diversification, instead of sticking to just one field. That way, I can reach out to more and more people. I am already endorsing a packaged drinking water company and have decided to get involved in production, which would help me realise my dreams. Now, I am in the process of setting up two factories to manufacture packaged drinking water. No matter how big or small my ventures are I want to come up with something good and unique.

I also plan to make films some day; films that people of Odisha would want to see. There are many themes such as sports, history of the state, freedom fighters and legendary personalities such as the late chief minister, Biju Patnaik, which I would love to explore. Hopefully, these subjects would appeal to the people.

These days, there is a lot of debate about the lack of originality in Odia cinema. People have been saying that we thrive on remakes and dubbed Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or Malayalam movies. Frankly, I do not think that it is not wrong to adapt a story or theme. One of the biggest grossers, such as the Aamir Khan-starrer Ghajini was a remake of a Tamil film and while Ra.One posters were similar those of Batman movie. So, I don't think there is really a problem in adaptation, but one has to strike a balance so that the audience does not feel fatigued.

After a gap of years, I got the state film award as best actor for Aakashe ki ranga lagila. However, I am not happy with the way awards are handed over to artistes. They are supposed to serve as a boost, so that we artistes can give our 100 per cent and perform better. But in Odisha, several institutions are giving away awards to please others. Moreover, the entire procedure of nomination and giving away awards is not transparent.

I have also seen that, at times, the award is given to another person whenever I have not gone to attend a particular function. Similarly, I also feel that I get an award just because someone, who was supposed to get it, was not present there.

If my films have run successfully, it means I have also made some contributions. My point is that awards must not be given on any condition but must be a genuine reward for a person, who has done good work and deserves to be praised.