Nitai Palit

Nityananda Palit, better known as Nitai Palit was born in Cuttack on 8 March, 1923 to Nagendranath Palit and Sarojini Devi He completed his schooling in Ravenshaw collegiate school and was interested in drama and music from an early age, theatre attracted him. He started off with writing, directing and producing dramas and plays and he acted in some of them., standing first in as many as 3 stage play competitions His plays were recognized for their innovation and provided a break from age-old techniques which were prevalent at that time Overtime he developed an interest in film-making To achieve that end, he took upon the task to teach himself the various technicalities involved in movie-making, reading volume after volume of books about the various nuances of the art, developing a mastery over them. He never attended any film institute. In 1954, he jointly directed a film, "Kedar-Gauri" with noted playwright Manoranjan Das. the film featured Bina Kumari, whom he later married, and Gour Ghosh. With this boost to his confidence, he left theatre for good and joined film-making. In 1955, he independently directed the film, "Bhai Bhai", thus becoming the first Oriya film director. The film did well, thus starting a long and colorful journey. In all, he directed 12 films, out of which he produced 3, 4 documentaries and 3 telefilms. He was also the writer of 9 film-stories, 16 screenplays and 4 documentary scripts. In 1965,he received the President's Award from Mrs. Indira Gandhi for direction in his film "Malajanha". This was the first Oriya film ever to be awarded the 'Silver Lotus' for direction and is still considered a classic. During his career he was awarded 'Best Director' by the govt. of Orissa four times, in 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1982. Won the Orissa Sangeet Natak Academy Award in the year 1982 Was awarded the 'Jaydev Award' in 1982 by the Govt. of Orissa along with a cash award fro lifetime contribution to Oriya cinema. In 1980, he set up his own production house 'Creative Movies Productions' and produced two movies- "Anurag" and "Raghu-Arakhita". He was a family man and spent as much time as he could with his wife and six daughters. His hobbies included reading, poem-writing, sketching and playing the tabla. He was active till the last. His film "Kichhi Aasa Kichhi Sapna" was in the process of being made when, on 26 July,1990, this great soul breathed his last, having fallen victim to a massive heart-attack. In his wake, he left a void that, perhaps, can never be filled. In his memory, a "Nitai Palit Award" is given each year to Oriya film personalities for their contribution to Oriya cinema. His legacy lives on.....