Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Film and Television Directors’ Association (OFTDA), formed just three years ago, has emerged as a unifying platform to address long-standing challenges and advocate for the welfare of its members.
At a press meet held on Sunday at the Press Club in Bhubaneswar, the association highlighted its achievements and objectives. “There was no formal association of film directors until Odia cinema celebrated its 87 years of completion, three years ago. The formation of OFTDA has significantly improved our collaboration with producers, technicians, writers’ guilds, and TV channels,” said an official spokesperson of the association.
The association also said that the formation of the association has helped resolve many pending payment issues faced by directors and has made dispute resolution between producers and channels much smoother.
Besides laying importance on how the producers will be financially beneficial, it is also being taken care of how the directors gain knowledge on latest technologies, it added.
Apart from promoting high quality cinema and television series, the association is also committed to improving the social and financial security of crew members from the third and fourth levels of production. Time and again, it has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them during difficult times.
The association also believes its responsibility extends to society as well. Whether it’s providing water, umbrellas, and hats during the summer, organizing blood donation drives, or distributing ‘pana’ and other essentials during Rath Yatra, the members actively engage in social service and environmental efforts like tree planting.
The association also claimed that it has always stood by directors and their families in times of personal loss, regardless of whether they are registered members or not. Families of late directors like Ashok Sharma and Trupti Biswal can vouch for its unconditional support—both emotional and financial.
The association is also standing by the directors who are no longer able to work due to advance of age. Despite 87 years of Odia cinema, no one had taken this issue seriously—until now. During its annual celebration, for the first time, it introduced a support scheme for such veteran directors. While it gave a one-time grant of Rs 50,000 to two senior directors, Ramesh Chandra Mohanty and Jyoti Prakash Nayak, it is also giving a lifetime monthly pension of Rs 5,000 to them. But for the the generous contribution of Dr. Achyuta Samanta and the KISS Foundation, the initiative couldn’t be possible, said the association.
The association also informed that it has constantly been in touch with the Odisha Government, advocating for the overall development of everyone associated with cinema and television production. Encouragingly, the government has responded with firm assurances of support, it added.
The press conference was attended by OFTDA’s chairman Himanshu Khatua, president Sabyasachi Mohapatra, vice president Bobby Islam and general secretary Tapas Sargharia.
