Bhubaneswar, April 5: The film Sona Spa, directed by Makarand Deshpande, may have gone unnoticed, but an Odia boy’s work in it has been appreciated.

Film editor Birenjyoti Mohanty is gradually making his mark in Bollywood.

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah played a cameo in Sona Spa, which is a fantasy film, and Biren got a chance to interact with the thespian.

“I shared with him that I am a student of Bijay Mohanty, his former classmate from National School of Drama. He was happy to know,” said Biren. He was elated that he was given a lot of freedom to edit the film.

Hailing from a small village in Kendrapara, Mohanty grew up in Talcher. A graduate from the drama department of Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, he also did a multimedia course later.

“I joined the drama department as I thought I could be a successful actor. But after I joined, my perspective changed and I realised acting is not a piece of cake and neither is filmmaking. Somehow the technical side of films attracted me and I felt an urge to learn direction or editing. So, I did the multimedia course,” said Biren.

Bijay Mohanty, his teacher at the Mahavidyalaya, referred him to renowned editor and director Sushant Mani. Mani groomed Biren by giving him tasks during the editing of Odia films, serials, albums and documentaries. Later, he independently handled the editing of many regional projects. But he wished to explore further and decided to try his luck in Bollywood.

“Finding work in creative fields is tough, be it in Bhubaneswar or Mumbai. I assisted top editors such as Steven H. Bernard, Aseem Sinha and Sanjay Sankala during my initial years,” he said.

At 29, Biren is often complimented for his acumen.

Aamir Khan had praised him for his editing in multi-starrer film Luck. After Luck, his next big project was Madhavan and Bipasha starrer Jodi Breakers.