The demise of the legendary actor of Ollywood, Raimohan Parida, who got easily distinguished for his villainous look, maniacal laughter and thundering dialogues, brings down the curtain on an actor who has left a legacy that will keep on inspiring actors for generations in his career spanning for over four decades.
Be it Udandi Sita's Rai Saheb, Ranabhumi's Chottray or Sarpanch Babu's Bhagaban Champati, his onscreen entry was villainous enough to raise the heartbeats of the audience. The entry of this onscreen 'dark character' sent chills down the spine of women and kids who cried out loud.
In his career of over four decades, Raimohan has left trails with his stupendous acting skill and dialogue delivery that are irreplaceable.
Born on July 10, 1963, in Udaypur village of Keonjhar, Raimohan's schooling was at his village school. Later, he joined Karanjia college in Mayurbhanj for intermediate and pursued his dreams by joining Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya to undergo training in acting.
Though he had a dream to become a lead actor, instead of competing with then Superstars of Ollywood, i.e. Uttam Mohanty and Sriram Panda, he accepted doing the negative characters. He made his debut with Gangasiuli in 1984. However, 'Sagar' marked his debut as an antagonist, which earned him massive appreciation. Since then he has never looked back. In his career, he has worked in over 90 Odia movies and 15 Bengali films.
"Since his childhood, we had participated in dramas together and had started in the comedy genre. He continued in Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya while I had to move to Kolkata to learn music. However, till his last days, he remained closely associated with Karanjia Sangeet Mahavidyalaya and Pallavi Club," said Karunakar Das, Principal of Karanjia Sangeet Mahavidyalaya.
It is not just that the notorious onscreen villain who showed his magic on the silver screen was limited to movies, he was one amongst the most sought-after actors in Jollywood or Jatra industry. He gained considerable prominence in the Jatra world and had a successful career in the industry for 15 years. He had directed several plays in association with his colleague Asrumochan Mohanty and later on directed several plays independently. Afterwards, he stepped on the pandal to portray his villain character in multiple plays.
While his scary entry, dialogue delivery and action sequences were remarkable by all means, his climax scenes were no less amazing. The theatres echoed with the sound of claps during his death scenes. However, today's tragic incident has left everyone in shock. Starting from his colleagues to the cine federation, political figures and the general public, everyone has expressed grief with eyes full of tears.
"It is still hard for me to believe that I am standing here waiting for his (Raimohan) post-mortem. Such a tragic incident is devastating. Recently, he had said that he was planning to set up an ashram and I was quite happy for him," said Asrumochan.