Prashanta Nanda (born 2 May 1947) is an Indian director, actor and politician from the state of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sc ...
. Actor-director duo
Siddhanta Mahapatra
Siddhanta Mahapatra ( od, ସିଦ୍ଧାନ୍ତ ମହାପାତ୍ର; born 4 May 1966), known mononymously as Munna Bhai, is an Indian actor, television personality and politician who works predominantly in Odia films.
Early and P ...
and Prashanta Nanda Given 8 all time blockbuster Movies to Ollywood. He is currently a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
at
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, wikisource:Constitution of India/Part V#Article 80, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legisl ...
, the upper house of the
Indian Parliament
The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...
, for Odisha. He worked in the
Odia film industry
The Odia film industry, colloquially known as Ollywood, is the Odia language Indian film industry, based in Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack in Odisha, India. The name Ollywood is a portmanteau of the words Odia and Hollywood.
Industry
In 1974, th ...
as an actor, director, screenwriter, lyricist and playback singer. He was also a former minister in Odisha state.
Career
In 1962, he debuted in the movie ''
Nua Bou
''Nua Bou'' is a 1962 Indian Odia film directed by Prabhat Mukherjee, which presents the sociocultural scenario of rural village life in India.lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment.
Royalties
A lyricist's income de ...
and
playback singer
A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not ap ...
. Nanda acted as male lead and directed the Hindi film
Naiyya
''Naiyya'' is 1979 Hindi language drama movie directed by Prashanta Nanda and starring Prashanta Nanda himself and Zarina Wahab.
Naiyya is a remake of the successful Odia language movie '' Shesha Shrabana''. The Odia movie is also directed by Pr ...
released in the year 1979. In 2009, his film ''Jianta Bhoota'' was released.
In 2007, he awarded with the Lifetime achievement award in Odisha Filmfare Award.
He was the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...
's (BJP) leader and Odisha state Vice President. He resigned from his membership in August 2007. After that he joined the
Nationalist Congress Party
The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...
and then became a member of
Biju Janata Dal
The Biju Janata Dal (; BJD) is a regional political party in the Indian state of Odisha founded and led by Naveen Patnaik, the current Chief Minister of Odisha and the son of former Chief Minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik, after whom the par ...
.
Charitable work
In 2013, it was announced that he had joined other
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
and international celebrities in the
TeachAids
TeachAids (pronounced ) is a nonprofit social enterprise that develops global health education technology products for HIV/AIDS, concussions, and COVID-19, based on an approach invented through research at Stanford University.
The TeachAids so ...
initiative, a state-of-the-art approach to worldwide HIV prevention, developed at Stanford University.
Nua Bou
''Nua Bou'' is a 1962 Indian Odia film directed by Prabhat Mukherjee, which presents the sociocultural scenario of rural village life in India.National Film Awards.
* FitFat Bioscope award, 2005
* Odisha Filmfare Award, 2015 (Lifetime achievement)