Relationship – Proposal for a Documentary on The life and times of Poet Jayanta Mahapatra: A doyen of Indian-English poetry

Proposal for a documentary - Relationship, that celebrates the life and times of Jayanta Mahapatra, 93, the first Indian poet to be conferred the Sahitya Akademi Award for English poetry. His two widely acclaimed poems, Indian Summer and Hunger, are considered classics in Modern Indian English Literature.

The film explores the trials, tribulations and the story behind Jayanta Mahapatra’s most famous works. A combination of interviews with the poet, readings of his poems and archival footage will be used to the tell the story of how he laid the foundation of Indian English Poetry.

About Jayanta Mahapatra

Jayanta Mahapatra’s writing career started in the late 1960s. Though initially, his short stories and poems were rejected by several publishers, they soon started coming out in international literary journals of repute. He gained international exposure when he was invited to participate in the International Writing Program at Iowa.

Born on 22nd October 1926 in the pre-independence era into a prominent Odia Christian family, Mahapatra went to Stewart School, Cuttack, where he still resides. Having completed his M. Sc. in Physics from Patna University, he began his teaching career as a lecturer in physics in 1949 and taught at various prestigious government colleges in Odisha. Mahapatra eventually retired as a reader of Physics in 1986 from Ravenshaw College (now Ravenshaw University), Cuttack.

Having authored 27 books of poems (seven in Odia), his most famous including Relationship, Bare Face, and Shadow Space, Mahapatra has also experimented widely with myriad forms of prose. His books of prose include Green Gardener, an anthology of short stories, and Door of Paper: Essays and Memoirs. Jayanta Mahapatra is also a distinguished editor of the literary magazine Chandrabhaga which is on its rerun a\er a hiatus of few years. His poems have appeared in the prestigious poetry anthology The Dance of the Peacock: an Anthology of English Poetry from India, published by Hidden Book Press, Canada.

The list of awards and accolades he has received are numerous and include the Padma Shri in 2009. He also received the Jacob Glatstein Memorial Award from Poetry Magazine, Chicago. In 2009, he was also awarded the Allen Tate Poetry Prize and received the Tata Literature Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ravenshaw University and was also awarded a D. LiT. by Utkal University in 2006. The KL Sethia Foundation awarded him the Kanhaiya Lal Sethia Award in 2017 at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

In May 2019, Mahapatra became the first-ever Indian English poet to become a Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi.

Poems are also a visual representation of a particular emotion and can be captured evocatively through a film. The endeavour is to unravel the enigma, the poet Jayanta Mahapatra himself, who continues to live in the city of CuTack, where he studied, taught, and wrote poetry and prose, making it a literary hotspot through his creative mind.

The Team

Director: Manoranjan Dash

An accomplished poet in his own right, he also was Jayanta Mahapatra’s student at Ravenshaw college and shares a unique bond with the poet.

A gold medalist in Physics, Dash started writing poetry during his student years at Ravenshaw college. His poems have appeared in the early editions of Chandrabhaga, a magazine Jayanta Mahapatra edits. Dash joined IIT Kanpur for a post-graduation in Physics but gave it up for his love for writing poetry and making films.

Dash has two poetry books, Kahari Akhire Nida Nahi (Sleepless Eyes) and Mahuphena (The Hive), to his credit. He received the Ka Sanskritika Samman, 2011 for documentary films, and is acknowledged as a trendsetter in the innovative presentation style of highly popular non-fiction TV serials.

Producer: 8MM Pictures

8mm Pictures is a Bangalore-based film production firm started by a CuTack resident and an advertising professional, Bishweshwar Das, a diehard poetry lover.

Project Budget

We are looking to raise funds in the range of 9-12 lakhs.

	Amount
Pre-production	2,00,000
Research, Scripting, Recce
Shoot	5,00,000
Equipment, Technicians
Post-produc%on	2,00,000
Edit, Music, Mastering
Total	9,00,000

You can donate using the QR Code below or directly to our bank account.

Banking Details

8mm Pictures
HDFC Bank
Cox Town Branch
Account No - 50200073391322
IIFC Code: HDFC0003790