Veteran Film Maker Nirad Mohaptra dies of Cardiac arrest in Mumbai

19 February ,Bhubaneswar

Noted Film maker, producer and Director Nirad Narayan Mohapatra ,best-known for his cultural, ecological and industrial documentaries, died of a cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Mumbai on February 19.
He was 67 and is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Mohapatra will be cremated in Mumbai later in the day after his daughter arrives from Hyderabad, his younger brother, senior journalist Sampad Mohapatra said.
Popularly known as Nirad Mohapatra , he taught acclaimed directors like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Saeed Akhtar Mirza , Girish Kasaravali , Jahnu Barua, Manmohan Mohapatra and Ketan Mehta etc., as an FTII lecturer from 1972-1974.
Born in Bhadrakh district of Odisha , Mohapatra was admired for a keen understanding of the theory of cinema. In 1971, he graduated with a first class diploma in film direction from Film and Television Institute of India , Pune . In 1972–1974 joined as a faculty of film direction in FTII as a lecturer.
Nirad has also written and lectured on film at several American Universities. He has served on the jury of several film festivals.

Mohapatra’s first feature film ‘Maya Mriga’ won the National Award for Second Best Film in 1984 Indian Panarama. It was also selected for the ‘Critics Week’ at the Cannes Film Festival and was screened at other festivals across the world. It also won the State Award for Best Film and Best Director.
It was also adjudged the best third world film at Mannheim-Hiedelberg International Film Festival then West Germany.The film was also the winner of the special jury award at Hawaii Film Festival, U.S and ‘Critics Week’ of Cannes in France.
Though he never made another feature film, he primarily concentrated on documentaries which won him many awards.

Mohapatra was teaching at the Film School of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar as a guest faculty for the last four years.