This story is from February 20, 2015

Filmmaker Nirad dead

Eminent filmmaker Nirad Mohapatra died at a Mumbai hospital on Thursday. He was 67 and leaves behind wife, two sons and a daughter.
Filmmaker Nirad dead
BHUBANESWAR: Eminent filmmaker Nirad Mohapatra died at a Mumbai hospital on Thursday. He was 67 and leaves behind wife, two sons and a daughter.
According to family sources, Mohapatra was undergoing treatment at the private hospital for last one month.
Mahapatra, an alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, made documentaries on a number of issues.
His oeuvre included documentaries on cultural, industrial, ecological and women empowerment issues.
He was admired for a keen understanding of theory of cinema. In 1971, he graduated with a first class diploma in film direction. He was a faculty in film direction at FTII from 1972 to 1974. He shot to fame with his feature film, Maya Miriga, which got rave reviews from across the world. The film was made with a shoe-string budget. It won Rajat Kamal at National Film Awards for second best film in 1984. It was also selected for 'critics week section' at Cannes Film Festival. The flick got Odisha State Film Awards in 1985 for best director and best film.
It was also adjudged the best third world film at Mannheim-Hiedelberg International Film Festival in erstwhile West Germany. The film got special jury commendation at Hawaii Film Festival, US.
In 1985, he was invited to visit four US universities to give lecture on filmmaking. He was a member of National Film Jury and panel for Indian Panorama several times. Mohapatra was teaching at different film schools across the country for last four years. He was teaching at School of Film and Media Sciences, KIIT University here, as a guest faculty. From 1974 to 1983, he founded and successfully ran a film society, Cinexstasy, here.
The aim was to popularize good cinema and facilitate members to see classics of world cinema. This was hugely popular and garnered a lot of response from people interested in seeing good cinema. Mohapatra was pivotal in inspiring many Odias to take up a career in cinema. Students of KIIT mourned Mohapatra.
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