Veteran Assamese film and stage actor Indra Bania passed away in a private hospital in Guwahati on March 25, 2015, the night following a prolonged illness. He was 73.
- Born in 1942 at Dhalpur, Indra Bania had first grabbed the limelight by playing the lead male role in ‘Gobardhan Charit’ in the 1970s in All India Radio, Guwahati.
- He was the first Assamese to win Silver Leopard Best Actor’s award at Locarno Film Festival for his stellar performance in Jahnu Barua’s ‘Halodhiya Choraye Baodhan Khai’ (The Catastrophe)
- He was honored with Natasurya Phani Sarma Award in the state in 2010 for his contribution to Assamese film and theatre.
- In 2007 Bania played the lead role in Enisha Sharma’s ‘Freedom at the Edge’ – a film on Machang Lalung, a poor tribal from Silchang in Assam who was confined in a prison for 54 years without any trial.
- Winner of several state-level awards, Indra Bania had acted in more than 40 Assamese films in a screen career spanning over four decades.