Indra Bania

Indra Bania (1942-2015) was an actor, playwright and director from Assam, born at Dhalpur in North Lakhimpur. He became a household name in Assamese theatre from the 1960s, was a regular artiste with All India Radio Guwahati from 1964, and worked for the Assam State Electricity Board until he retired. He acted in his first film, Khoj, in 1975.

His best-known screen role is Raseswar Bora, a struggling farmer in Jahnu Barua's Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai (1987). The performance won him the Silver Leopard for best actor at the Locarno festival, making him the first Assamese actor to win such an award at an international festival. The film itself won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film.

Over four decades he acted in more than 40 Assamese films. The database lists him in Rickshawala and Haladhar (both 1993), Mimanxa (1998), Aai Kot Nai (2009), Jeeya Jurir Xubax (2014) and Morisika (2016). In 2007 he played the lead in the short film Freedom at the Edge, about Machang Lalung, who spent 54 years in jail without trial. He received the Natasurya Phani Sarma Award in 2010 and died in Guwahati on 25 March 2015.