Critically acclaimed short film on road safety ‘The Silent Epidemic’ produced by Odisha’s social entrepreneur Sarika Panda from Bhawanipatna and internationally acclaimed filmmaker Jitendra Mishra from Titilagarh won a special mention prize at the National Road Safety Short Film Festival organized by the Transport department, Govt of Odisha last night.
The award was received by Sarika Panda during the award ceremony held in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday in the presence ofHon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha Shri Naveen Patnaik, Smt. TukuniSahu, Minister Commerce & Transport, Smt. Usha Padhee, Principal Secretary, Commerce & Transport, Shri ArunBothra, Addl. DG, CID-CB &CMD, CRUT and Shri Amitabh Thakur, Transport Commissioner, Odisha, Shri Kuna Tripathy, Chairman OFDC, Celebrated actors Shri Siddhanta Mahapatra, Shri Sabyasachi Mishra, Smt. ArchitaSahu, National Award winning Author and Journalist Shri Surya Deo, Founder of Bakul Foundation Shri Sujit Mahapatra, Nari Shakti Puraskar awardee Dr. Shruti Mahapatra and several other dignitaries.
Earlier the film was premiered in Berlin, Germany, London, Dubai, Spainand received critical acclamation, the trailer and poster of the film were launched during the 76th Cannes film festival this year.Directed by Akshat Gupta and Akash Basu, the film depicts the life and struggles of 4 different road accident victims from different walks of life in India including the Paralympics Gold medalist SumitAntil (Javeline, Tokyo 2020) from Haryana. The film is being presented by Sarika’s Raahagiri Foundation and Jitendra’s production house Cinema4good.
Born in Bawanipatna, Odisha, Sarika is Director in Nagarro and founder Trustee of Raahgiri Foundation and leading the Raahgiri Day movement in Haryana. She is also helping other cities to replicate this hugely successful concept. Having about 20 years of experience in the field of urban developments, transport, environment and architecture, she is also leading the non-motorised transport work and Vision Zero programme to reduce road accidents in many cities in India. Sarika was selected as one of the 60 global women leaders in the world who making a change in how we move in out cites. The recognition came from TUMI, Germany. In 2019 Sarika was selected as the bicycle mayor of Gurugram by BYCS, Netherlands. She has been formally trained as an architect and urban planner and has a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, she also has a Master’s degree in Sociology.
Born in Titilagarh, Odisha, Jitendra Mishra has been one of the few Indian film producers and promoters who have created a benchmark in ‘Alternative methods of Film Production, Distribution and Promotion’ at international level. Committed towards meaningful cinema, Jitendra has already been associated with the production, distribution and promotion of more than 110 films in different categories and various capacities all together. Many of them have got worldwide acclamation and recognition. The Last Color, Buried Seeds, Desires of the Heart and Human Oak are few recent films among others. Awarded with several national and international accolades, Jitendra has been the festival director of the unique film festival and forum SIFFCY an initiative of India’s leading development organization Smile Foundation. Jitendra has been a member of the Cannes Producers Network and also been invited as Jury to more than 50 different international film festivals and forums so far.
