In a star-studded evening, the most coveted Jayadev Puraskar was conferred on noted cameraman Ashok Kumar Swain on the occasion of the 27th State Film Award function that was held here at the Utkal Mandap on Monday.
The award carries a purse of Rs 1 lakh and a citation.
Swain has 24 films, eight documentary films and more than 200 TV serials to his credit. Besides he has proved his dexterity many a time working with Hindi and English flicks.
While talking to mediapersons, Swain urged the cine-struggling youths not to take everything as fast food.
The evening saw 24 categories in which the awards were given away to actors, actresses and technicians. ‘Kehi Nuhen Kahara’ bagged the best film award which is christened as Mohan Sunder Dev Goswami Award. For ‘Tulasi Apa’, a biopic on known social activist Padmashree Tulasi Munda, Amiya Kumar Patnaik, Barsha Nayak, Pankaj Jal, Arjun Jena, Madhusmita Maharaja and Chinmay Dad Patnaik were awarded in the categories of Best Director, Best Actress, Best Music, Director (Balakrushna Samman), Best Cameraman, Best Child Artist and Best Dialogue Writer respectively. Saumya Ranjan received the Best Actor Award for his performance in ‘Antarlina’.
For the track ‘Prema Tutu Hatha Dhari’ and ‘To Sathe Bandha Mo Jeevana Dori’, Gautam Giri and Antara Chakraborty were honoured with Best Male Singer and Best Female Singer, respectively.
However this year there was no competent in the categories of Best Educational Film, Best Documentary Film and Best Film in tribal language.
Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda informed the gathering that as the outcome of the recently-concluded Make In Odisha Conclave, a proposal has come for setting up a Film City at Chilika.
This apart, in the Tourism Policy-2016 a provision has been made for only those filmmakers who shoot their films in the tourist spots.