Protest to save Odia film industry renamed as ‘Mo Cinema’
Bhubaneswar: The protest to save Odia film industry led by Odia movie producer Sanlisa Patel enters fourth day Sunday and renamed the protest as ‘Mo Cinema’ and will continue with this name from now.
On Sunday a meeting was organized Sunday to plan for the meeting with Odisha Film Development Corporation (OFDC) to be held Tuesday.
In the meeting senior filmmaker Sabyasachi Mohapatra, directors Dilip Panda, Bobby Islam, Tapas Sarghargia, Girish Mohanty, actress Mahasweta Ray, Prativa Panda, Pinky Pradhan actor Buddhaditya Mohanty, Sohamm Singh, music director Prem Anand, Lyricist Nirmal Nayak, Cine critic Surya Deo and others.
On the occasion Mahasweta Ray declared as spokesperson for the Mo Cinema.
Earlier, several political party leaders such as Suresh Routray of Congress, Mohan Majhi of BJP, Sukanta Panigrahi, Suraj Suryvanshi, Shankar Oram/Ka Narayan Rao and others joined her in the protests and supported her and assured of raising the issue with the government strongly.
Meanwhile, representing government OFDcC chairman Kuna Tripathy, BJD General secretary and actor Arindam Roy and actor and MP Anubhav Mohanty met Sanlisa and others and assured of finding solution.
Sanlisa Patel Saturday said that the protest will continue till Tuesday and if the demands were not fulfilled soon the whole Odia industry will come to capital city street for protest.
On third day of her protest several actors, directors and producers joined her in her protest that includes director Sabyasachi Mohapatra, Actress Anu Choudhury, Mahasweta Ray, actor Buddhaditya Mohanty, Director Ashok Pati, Swaraj Barik, actress Pinky Pradhan, director Bobby Islam, music director Prem Anand and others.
On the occasion Sanlisa threatened to go on hunger strike from tomorrow if her demands were not fulfiled.
The demands include -one cinema hall in each block headquarters, mandatory screening of Odia films in every theatre for a certain period, and formation of regulatory body to address producers’ grievances among others. It also includes streamlining of distribution systems and security of films and makers both on and offline.
On the occasion Patel said, “I sought assistance from people concerned to release my movie on December 14 across the state. But nobody has come forward to help me in this regard.
She added “I request the government to fulfill the demands or else, the protest will continue for an indefinite period.”
As per report some protesters had damaged the posters of Pratha and opposed its release in Jharsuguda. This made the producer remove the movie from several cinema halls.