Cinema of Odisha

The Odia film industry (Odia: ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସିନେମା), colloquially known as Ollywood, is the Odia language Indian film industry, based in Cuttack, Odisha. The name is a portmanteau of the words Odia and Hollywood.

Industry

In 1974, the Government of Odisha declared film making and construction of cinema theaters as industry in the state, and two years later in 1976, it established the Odisha Film Development Corporation in Cuttack.

History

Oriya filmography has great history of film making starting the year 1936. Its first production was a talkie. The first Oriya talkie Sita Bibaha was made by Mohan Sundar Deb Goswami in 1936. Drawn from the great Indian epic Ramayana, the story tells about the marriage of Sita with Ram. The actual plot was made from a drama written by Kamala Mishra. Prepared with a budget of only Rs 30,000, the film has 14 song sequences. Despite it being the first Oriya film with several drawbacks in every section of its making, the two-hour-long movie generated great enthusiasm among the people. Released by Laksmi Talkies, Puri. The 12-reeled film had in its cast line Makhanlal Banerjee (Ram) who received only Rs 120 for his performance, Aditya Ballav Mohanty (Lakhsman) who got only Rs 35 as conveyance allowance and Prabati Devi (Sita) who was paid the highest amount of Rs 150. This was a landmark film of Oriya Film Industry.

Odisha

Odisha (pronunciation: ⁱ/əˈdɪsə/;) or Orissa (/ɒˈrɪsə, ɔː-, oʊ-/;Odia: ଓଡ଼ିଶା) is one of the 29 states of India, located in the east of India. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, and Andhra Pradesh to the south and south-west. Odisha has 485 kilometres (301 mi) of coastline along the Bay of Bengal on its east, from Balasore to Malkangiri. It is the 9th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. Odia (formerly known as Odia) is the official and most widely-spoken language, spoken by 33.2 million according to the 2001 Census.

The ancient kingdom of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War, coincides with the borders of modern-day Odisha. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions. April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day. The region is also known as Utkala and is mentioned in India's national anthem, "Jana Gana Mana".Cuttack was made the capital of the region by Anantavarman Chodaganga in c. 1135, after which the city was used as the capital by many rulers, through the British era, until 1948, when Bhubaneswar replaced it as the capital.