Samarpita Dash, PhD scholar
Hi I am Samarpita Dash, I won the the best actress Jury award in Odisha State Film Award for Ae Akasha Tale in 2025. Let me take you through the roller coaster ride of multiple choices that has bought me to this spotlight today. I was born a very filmy, emotional, and stubborn child. Every action evoked a very emotional reaction in me. From being a super studious kid, to competing in every competition under the sun, to still managing to have masti with friends.
Anyhow, before coming to the main drama, cut to my graduation days, when I started modelling. Oh, how did I reach there? Oh did I mention that I did my Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication, 12th in science and graduation in commerce. Battling my way through two forced years of studying science because of being the school topper in 10th, I was only allowed to take science in plus two by my parents. Talk about reverse empowerment! I ran away from science as fast as I could. I did my graduation in commerce, I blossomed again. I became the Vice-President of my University. I also got into a nice side hustle- modelling. I modelled for many Odisha handloom brands like Utkal Amrita, Shefali, did ramp shows. But the biggest turning point in my career was becoming Mamuni in 2018. I went to audition for an Ad shoot in Story Lab, a media production house and became the face of satirical a mini-skit on You Tube. The satire on Odia and Odia lifestyle became a huge hit. Mamuni hit me like a wave of Tsunami. It was surreal to know that people can love your character in such a manner that Mamuni virtually became my identity.
Soon, we started training for our first movie at Story Lab. I started learning Martial Arts in 2019 for the lead role in an untitled action movie. At 4 am in the chilling winters of Bhubaneswar, I would practice bare foot, that’s how my coach preferred to teach. But then came Covid-19 pandemic, and the entire country was in a lockdown. Failed attempt 001.
In 2020, I joined theatre to keep practicing and in the second half, I started learning Bachata, a dance form, because by then we had moved on to a new concept and I had to do a really good dance number. The second phase of Covid-19 swept away that opportunity too. Failed attempt 002.
All this while, the team could see how patiently I was waiting for my debut, so they decided to work day and night to give me the grand debut I deserved in 2021. The title was decided to be Ae Akasha Tale, and we started shooting for the title track , which is an earnest effort at the travel anthem of Odisha, so please stop using Piku and ZNMD songs and start using ours. A couple of days into the shoot, some key members including me got COVID. I also got dengue, a double whammy. The shoot came to a halt. Failed attempt 003.
In November, 2022 we finally started shooting. Scene after scene, day after day, we kept moving forward, kept inching closer. A million viruses (literal and otherwise) attacked me, but I shooed them away with my new-found enthusiasm. After shooting for four months, we thought we did it. Well, we underestimated the never-ending stage of post-production. We liked a lot of things and hated everything all at once. We geared up for our big release on 17th November, 2023, to become the only Odia movie running then in the theatres for over a month – fighting tooth and nail with big releases like Tiger 3, Animal, 12th Fail and so on. People came and watched. People liked it. People spread the word. It was the culmination of a beautiful journey traversed hand in hand by the brilliant cast and our versatile crew. Such as the love that even after two years when we silently put up the whole film on our YouTube channel, the viewership reached a whopping 2,00,000 without any extensive promotion, just a quiet, a genuine support from Odisha public.
I was a debutant. The film was female-centric (sad that this still needs to be said aloud like a thing, but the world is what it is). Then, one day, one of my juniors dropped me a text. It read “Congratulations for Special Jury Award…35th State Film Awards!” That’s when I had the profound epiphany that even if it feels really bad, keep going and you will be validated. The award was the result of my faith and perseverance.
It wasn’t me – it was that little Samarpita who dared to dream big, who dared to go offbeat, dared to work so hard it hurt – who went up on stage that evening and collected her first State Award for her first film. So, yes, this was me and this was my little story. Hopefully, I will come back with a bigger bang (and an even better story). Toodles.