Prasanta Kumar Dash
Bhubaneswar, April 24: Ace Odia actress Varsha Priyadarshini, who was making headlines in news for her marital discord with his spouse, Ollywood film star Anubhav Mohanty, is now a front-runner in Odisha politics.
Varsha has been fielded by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Odisha from the Barchana Assembly Constituency, soon after her induction into the party fold a few days ago.
Varsha Priyadarshini, as a doyen in Odia film industry, was not only bestowed with a BJD ticket to contest an election rather she was opted as one of the befitting candidates to take in as a substitute for veteran BJD leader, a 6-time MLA and former minister Amar Prasad Satpathy.
The entry of Varsha Priyadarshini into the electoral politics, that too her joining in a predominant party like the BJD, which has been ruling the state for at least 24 years at a stretch, was more incidental than it usually means for a public representative or a social worker. Varsha who had began her career as a doll-model and Actress in Odia movie from her early 17, was almost submerged in Odia and Bengali movies which almost brought good name & fame of the chocolate girl as a contemporary heroine to play all types of lead characters.
Showing her first signature in the Odia Movie ‘Bazzi’, released in 2001, Varsha acted as the heroine which earned immense popularity for her even during its premiere show. Since then, the Cuttack-based Odia girl belonging to a typical actors’ family had never looked back, rather took leaping paces in her acting career, for having flawless success in the profession and ample of opportunities and assignments offered by ace and premiere film-producers and movie-making organisations before her.
With Varsha’s appealing, photogenic physical complexion and realistic performances in contemporary Odia movies, she emerged as one of the fames in Odia film industries in a couple of years. She acted in at least 9 leading Odia films, one after the other in a few years. Her efficiency in playing multiple characters in multiple languages as a heroine, in lively performing family dramas, spread her name and fame nationwide. As a result, Varsha was offered sizeable and potential roles and assignments from the Bengali film industries. She signed at least 13 Bengali movies within a 3-year time, from which her starrer 8 movies hit the theatre with house-full viewers.
‘Suna Chadhei Mo Rupa Chadhei’, a Varsha starrer Odia movie, released in 2008 became a milestone for a mere Odia girl Varsha, who was never, groomed herself from a film institute or an organisation perfecting in dance-drama fraternities. As Varsha’s contribution as an Odia celebrity, to the field of Odia film division is concerned, she has successfully acted in at least 41 evergreen movies till 2021 which hit the box-office with respect to the audience approval. Apart from romantic- family dramas, Varsha have proved her excellence in enormous promotional, commercials and small screen documentary which were under production on those days.
During actions and interactions with film fraternities, Varsha comes nearer to the heart of Ollywood star Anubhav Mohanty (at present a Parliamentarian) during the shooting-set in Odia Movie, ‘Balunga Toka’ produced in 2011 wherein the duo proposed each other to be life-partners. Ultimately, the peer-friends turned into a star-couple where both families showered their graces during their nuptial ceremony. However, the intimate relation as husband & wife between the 3-time MP Anubhav and Varsha, faded up from July 2020 as her counterpart filed a divorce petition in a Delhi-based court. Since then, Varsha was fighting an odd family problem against her spouse and other in-laws, which was wrapped off with a bitter end. Despite a long- fought judicial battle, Varsha was granted divorce by the Family Court in Cuttack.
Ostracised socially and debarred by in-laws, Varsha was then living a resentful life where there was neither any family support nor any fabulous offers and assignments from the film industries were readily at her hand for a smoother breakeven. However, she withstood all social burdens and emerged as a social outfit to take up social and educational wellbeing of needy women. She also reached the outreached people who needed special cares and attentions, during their distress and misfortune. Meanwhile, Varsha produced an Odia movie ‘Nimki’ that filmed the phenomenal development achieved by the Naveen Patnaik led Odisha government under the aegis of 5T initiatives wherein she played the lead character Nimki, a minor girl of the unscripted hamlet ‘Nimpur’. The developmental film ‘Nimki’, produced on the success stories of the Odisha government became an instrument to attract Varsha to Naveen Niwas, the ancestral abode of stalwart Biju Patnaik and CM Naveen. Alongside, Varsha, Actors Anubhav, Akash Dasnayak,Sidhant Mohapatra who are actors in reel-life and leading politicians in their real-life had facilitated, the rural-girl Nimki to enter into the Chief Minister’s official residence, to be a part of the ruling BJD, that takes ‘Developed Odisha’ as a mission.
Varsha- Priyadarshini who had eventually entered the Naveen Niwas, met the chief minister while acting as Nimki, now has really joined brigades of BJD and contests the Assembly Election from the Barchana Assembly segment in Jajpur.
Varsha, while receiving a rousing welcome from BJD’s top leaderships during her new innings said,“ Naveen is an icon for the people of Odisha for bringing sea-change and sustainable transformation across the state. I will take pride to dedicate my miniature part to it, as bestowed by the CM to contest as an MLA candidate.”
