Sriram Panda | |
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Born | 1954 Nabarangpur, Odisha |
Occupation | Actor, Director, screenplay writer, yoga preacher |
Years active | 1972–1994 |
Spouse(s) | Tripura Misra |
Sriram Panda (Odia: ଶ୍ରୀରାମ ପଣ୍ଡା, born c. 1954) is a former Oriya movie actor, director and a screenplay writer hailing from the Nabarangpur district, Odisha, India. He left the film industry in 1992.
Sriram Panda started his film career in Dhir Biswal's Dharitri directed by Nitai Palit in 1972, which was a great success at that time. He emerged as a popular film star of Odisha in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992, at the peak of his career, he quit the film industry to join the Bihar School of Yoga at Munger, Bihar, India as a Yoga preacher and renamed himself as Swami Nitya Chaitanya. During his early career, he did modelling assignments and promotions for Cavender's Cigarettes and was known for his onscreen smoking scenes which inspired many youths to smoke. Later in life, he regretted those assignments and scenes and despised them, and to atone for them he quit acting in Oriya cinema and became a monk.
He has written, directed and produced the movie Kurukshetra (1988).
During his 20-year career, he got several state-level awards and accreditations from the media and Oriya cine public at large.