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.
