OFDC meets to resolve Manoj Mishra boycott dispute, actor gives a miss

The Odisha Film Development Corporation (OFDC) held a meeting on Thursday chaired by Kuna Tripathy to resolve the dispute between actor Manoj Mishra and some Ollywood producers who have banned the former for two years.

The meeting was attended by actor Arindam Roy, Film Artist Association secretary Sritam Das, Producer Tutu Nayak and other persons from the Odia film fraternity. Though the meeting was about Manoj Mishra and his ban, he himself was absent from the meeting.

“Manoj Mishra is our brother. I do not want this dispute to linger any longer and affect him adversely. I spoke with the producers in the meeting and they told me that they do not harbour any ill feelings against him. They also assured me that the ban will be lifted the day he comes for a dialogue,” Tripathy said.

Speaking to reporters after meeting, Sritam Das said, “Everybody present in the meeting agreed to lift the ban on him. Which is a positive sign. I would like to request Manoj Mishra to come forward and have a dialogue with them.”

Similarly, producer Sanjay Nayak said, “We came to the meeting after Kuna Tripathy called us for the same. We are ready to forgive Mishra and lift the ban considering that he is too a member of Ollywood family. But still he chose to miss the meeting.”

“He was not picking up Kuna Tripathy’s calls. But we requested him to dial Mishra again to speak with him during the meeting. Though he received the call, he never spoke anything about the ban. Rather, he went to another topic and never told us to lift the ban. We got confused about his problem after hearing him today,” Arindam said.

Meanwhile, Mishra’s latest social media post provided a glimpse of his stand where he does not seem to attend any meeting with the producers. Taking to Facebook, Mishra wrote, “Kuna Tripathy has just called me and I have suggested him best possible ways to resolve the issue.”