Krushnachandra Tripathy Sharma, born on 23rd February 1914 completed his studies in Ayurvedic Medicine from Ashtanga Ayurveda Vidyalaya, Kolkata in 1936 and started his medical practice in Aska. Soon he became very popular in the field and started a company named ‘Utkal Ayurvedic Pharmacy Limited’ for manufacture and distribution of quality Ayurvedic drugs. The company opened its branches all over Odisha and spread into adjoining states of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh as well. Tripathy had joined the freedom struggle also.

Being a person of great literary merit, who had a lot of interest in films, he branched into film production also. In 1958, he set up ‘Utkal Chalachitra Pratisthan’ and started producing some quality Odia films which brought him immense popularity. Mahalakshmi Puja (1959), the debut film of the famous actor Sarat Pujari, was his first production followed by two other hits, Parinama (1961) and Dasyu Ratnakar (1962). Mahalakshmi Puja was dubbed into Hindi and was released under the name ‘ Jai Jagannath’.

Image credit: Kabiraj Krushna Chandra Tripathy Sharma’s Interview in Cine Sambad magazine; image courtesy Surya Deo