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Prashanta Nanda (born 2 May 1947) is an Indian director, actor and politician from the state of Odisha. He is currently a Member of Parliament at Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, for Odisha. He had worked predominantly in Odia film industry but also worked in Bengali film industry and Hindi film industry extensively. He was also a former minister in Odisha state.
He did his schooling from Ravenshaw Collegiate School. His B.Sc. from Ravenshaw College, M.A. and Ph.D from Utkal University, LL.B. from Madhusudan Law College, and have D.Litt. from MIT University, Pune.
From his childhood, he showed an interest in acting by participating in different dramas from his school days. He performed in a children's program named Sishu Sansar for Cuttack's All India Radio with the character named Bulu.
The 1976 movie Shesha Shrabana became his directorial debut in the industry, where the versatile actress Mahasweta Ray made her debut with the movie. Movies like, Shesha Shrabana, Hisab Nikas, Balidan, Swapna Sagara, Maa O Mamata, Dora are some of his milestone classics for Odia film industry.
While screening of his film Shesha Shrabana at IFFI, New Delhi, Tarachand Barjatya of Rajshri Productions, approached him to make the movie in Hindi. Subsequently, Nanda directed and acted as male lead in Naiyya released in the year 1979 alongside Zarina Wahab and the veteran actor Amrish Puri.
The whole shooting of the movie Naiyya was done in the bank of Mahanadi near Cuttack. The film's music was given by the legendary musician Ravindra Jain. He again collaborated with Rajshri Productions with movie Paheli. He has also given his direction in 1984 Hindi movie, Grahasthi starring Yogeeta Bali, Suresh Oberoi and Ashok Kumar.
The Odia movie Maa O Mamata, based on a short story written by him while he was in his 9th standard. His mother found out his story diary and showed to his father. They were worried about his future, because of the content of story written by a school going boy. For that they punished him.
Later, in 1980, Nanda made a movie named Maa O Mamata, where he was the lead actor along with Mahasweta Ray, Hemant Das and Anita Das. The movie was a blockbuster at that time. His father never saw his films, but by hearing a lot of appreciation from everyone's mouth, he asked him about the movie and showed interest to watch it. After watching the movie, he was surprised and asked where he found this kind of story. In reply, Prashanta said, the story was the same as what he had written in that diary in his childhood for which they had punished him and hid that diary. After that, his father got emotional with happiness and told him, As a parent, sometimes we behave more protective towards our children, and we never want our child to go the wrong way but it is difficult to find what talents our child has gifted by god.
While sharing the story of Maa O Mamata, Nanda has shared one of the songs Jane Radha Jane Meera and some parts of the film with the veteran Bollywood actor Raj Kapoor. Later, the song lyrics and theme of the movie Maa O Mamata reflects in his 1985 film Ram Teri Ganga Maili. In 2008, his film Jianta Bhoota was conferred Best Film on Environment Conservation/Preservation in 56th National Film Awards.
Actor-director duo Sidhant Mohapatra and Prashanta Nanda have given 8 all time blockbuster Movies to Ollywood.
In 2007, he awarded with the Lifetime achievement award in Odisha Filmfare Award.
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