A Befitting Tribute
The Living Ghost, Akshay Kumar Parija’s ode to his native state Orissa has been winning critical acclaim across the globe. Mayank Singh reports

It is not everyday that one comes across a banker, who has bridged the gap between business and art. Akshay Kumar Parija, board member and executive director, Blue Lines Shipping Pte and a banker of repute for over two decades in Oman and Kuwait has managed to close this chasm successfully. The Living Ghost a movie produced by Parija has been winning accolades on the international film festival circuit. At the 6th Independent South Asian Film Festival, in Seattle, Washington it made it to the final 16 movies which were selected for screening from 105 submissions. It went onto win an award for being the most thought provoking movie at the festival. Prior to this it received a seal and certificate of appreciation for taking on the sensitive issue of tribal exploitation at the 32nd Cairo International Film Festival.

Showing gratitude
Says Parija, “I have a background in promoting art and culture from Orissa, my native state in India. This movie is a way to express my gratitude for my state.” The movie is also an effort to highlight the sensitive issue of tribal exploitation and to expose Oman on the film making market. Parija’s views found an instant connect with Prashanta Nanda, a veteran film personality, who has produced and directed Oriya, Bengali and Hindi movies over a 50 year old career. Nanda was on the lookout for a script that dealt with a meaningful subject. Moreover, he needed a producer who would be committed to such a project. Ashok Suvarna, executive director, NPA events came on board to take care of the marketing and distribution aspects of the movie.

The meeting of minds led to swift action – the movie went on the floors in January 2008 and was canned by September. “We applied to seven film festivals and got selected for three. The movie was not included in the New York Art Film Festival and the Los Angeles Asian Film Festival due to a single day’s delay,” says Parija. The impact created by the movie at Seattle won it a DVD contract of 250,000 copies. Out of these 200,000 DVD’s will be sold in the US and the remaining 50,000 would be marketed in Europe. The proceeds of the sales will go to the people whose cause has been showcased in the movie. Parija is working on a second venture which would showcase Oman. Having worked in BankMuscat and National Bank of Oman for 19 years, Parija feels that one should be passionate about ones work and strive for complete satisfaction of one’s customers. Having swapped customers for viewers, Parija is bringing the same zeal to movie making now.
 

Top^