Akshay Kumar Parija, a Harvard Business School, USA alumnus, is a former senior banker, businessman, and social entrepreneur with diverse interests spanning shipping, logistics, trade finance, oil trading, and entertainment.Over the years, he has produced 34 films and more than 8,000 television episodes. His films, often artistic in nature, are made in Odia, Bengali, Hindi, and Malayalam. They have received wide recognition, winning several National Awards, 6 International Awards, and 43 State Film Awards. Notable among them are The Living Ghost (2008) and Kadvi Hawa (2016), both of which address global warming and climate change and earned National Film Awards.Other notable films are Rasgolla, Kantho, Gotro in Bengali, Halka in Hindi and The Portraits in Malayalam, which was screened at major international film festivals in Moscow, Dhaka, Spain, Vladivostok, and New York, receiving numerous awards and accolades. Parija also ventured into the digital space as the co-founder and chairman of Kanccha Lannka, a premium regional OTT platform that streams globally and is available on Jio and Airtel platforms in Odisha.
