Oriya Director Nila Madhab Panda got international success with I am Kalam

PROFILE

Delhi-based Nila Madhab Panda, who hails from a remote village in Subarnapur or Sonepur district of  Odisha, has emerged as one of India’s emerging and innovative young filmmaker with the international success with his debut feature film “I Am Kalam”, produced by NGO Smile Foundation and presented by Smile Foundation and Century Ply in association with Surya World.

The film, being released theatrically across India on August 5 by Reliance Entertainment, has won one dozen(12) awards at international and national levels till now, including the Best Child Artist Award at the recently-announced 58th National Film Awards (please see complete awards list below), and it’s the first time an Oriya film maker, Panda has achieved such big acclodes across the globe and now a big theatrical release in India. Madhab also received Prestigious “Aravindan Puraskaram” for Best debut Director. Two more feature film, one bollywood and a English feature film in production now.
A veteran of over 70 documentaries, short films, television drama (including 2 long TV serials) and corporate & advertising films, Panda is right now in the midst of preparing several feature film and documentary projects out of his studio “Eleeanora Images” .
Though he left odisha 15 years back, but still closely associated with the stories and life of Odisha, he continue doing documentaries and short films in odisha for various international channels.
He never moved to Mumbai or Los angeles, having worked in those places for many years, but a challenging step he took to work from the capital and made a big success from there. “The idea is to work in a completely independent environment of filmmaking, so that I can make films on subjects that I am truly convinced in. The good thing about being based in Delhi is that here one can be connected with the whole of India in a true sense since it is the political capital of the country. Also, Delhi for long has been a favourite location for film shooting, but I am also trying to work towards getting it established as another film production location, in addition to Mumbai which is home to Bollywood,” says Panda.

Earlier, Panda was among the final three of “India’s Creative Future” award in 2007 and received the “Longest Journey Award” from the British Council. He was a United Nations Media Fellow in 2003 and got the UK Film Fellowship in 2005. In 2010 he was also honoured with the “Excellence in Media” for his work in creating awareness against female foeticide. He also received the “Heroism in Cinematography” award of the Hunger Project in 2003.Panda has made films for India’s National Broadcaster Doordarshan (DD), BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and private producers across the globe.