About

Shri Prashanta Nanda born in Cuttack, Odisha to Kanchan and Jagannath Nanda, is an Indian director, actor and politician from the state of Odisha. He is currently a Member of Parliament at Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, for Odisha. He has worked in the Odia, Bengali and Hindi Film Industry extensively. He was also a former minister in Odisha state. From his childhood, he showed an interest in acting by participating in different dramas from his school days. He performed in a children’s program named ‘SishuSansar’ for Cuttack's All India Radio. He started his acting career from early age. While performing in a drama at Kala Vikash Kendra of Cuttack, Kaviraj Krushna Chandra Tripathy and Dhira Biswal choose him for the Odia movie Dasyu Ratnakar. In 1962, he debuted as a lead actor with Odia movieNuaBou. His three movies, NuaBou (1962), MatiraManisa (1966) and Adina Megha (1970) got three times National Film Award For best feature Odia Film within just eight years. He has worked under veteran directors like Prabhat Mukherjee, Mrinal Sen, Amit Maitra. Such a versatile genius like Mr. Prashant Nanda is very rare. He is an actor, screenplay-writer, director, lyricist and playback singer. Throughout his career, he has bought many laurels to the state which shows the sheer dedication he always had since beginning.