Raveena Tandon speaks about womanhood, life and Odisha, at Ananya

Bhubaneswar: “I would love to work in an Odia film,” said Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon, at the second edition of Ananya, an event celebrating womanhood, organized by Kanak News yesterday.

The event kicked off with Ananya’s anthem song. Singer Antara Chakraborty’s voice reverberated through the hall, bringing a smile to all faces.

The highlight of the evening was six-year-old Pratysha Pati, Odisha’s wonder orator, speaking about womanhood and how women shape the nation. Beautifully reciting the popular Sanskrit shloka, “Yatra naari pujyante, ramante tatra devatah,” which means, God resides where women are worshipped, she won loud cheers and applause.

It was followed by a panel discussion by Ollywood actress Mahashweta Ray, Dr Maya Gantayat, Dr Sujata Kar and writer Sushmita Bagchi. Abhina Asutosh Satpathy moderated the discussion, which focused on a woman’s life and how she manages to strike a balance between work and home.

The loudest cheer was saved for Raveena, who took the stage to address the audience. The session, moderated by Flora Swain, unfolded various events of the National Award winning actor’s life, including adoption of two daughters, the rough patches in her journey in Bollywood and what inspired her to keep going.

The Mohra actor talked about the turning point in life when she was driving past slums in Mumbai and realised that people in the world had much serious problems to deal as compared to hers. That gave her the confidence to begin afresh and work harder. She credited her parents for having supported her immensely in all stages of life, especially when she decided to adopt two little girls at the age of 21, inspite of being unmarried.

The mast mast girl also said that she believed that women can have it all- be it being successful at work or home, women today are effortless multi-taskers.

She also spoke about women’s health and lifestyle. “It’s important to eat well and take care of your body instead of dieting and shrinking into a skeleton,” she said.

To encourage young girls to grow up into greater beings, five uniquely talented young girls were conferred with the Ananya award for their achievements at a tender age. They are Pratyasha Pati whose powerful speech on Republic Day went viral on social media, Mamata Dalai who had won Bravery Award for saving her brother from a crocodile, Mrigakshi Rajesh Kumar who is Mini Little Miss Galaxy, Arpita Behera who won the Little Miss Galaxy World 2018 title, and Manasha Tripathy for being the youngest AICC member.