Conceived around 2014, Divine Death (Debata Hoile Marai in Odia) is a documentary film centred around the unique birth and death ritual – Nabakalebara of Lord Jagannath at Sreekhshetra Puri, Odisha. It was not only a film about a larger-than-life, complex religious event, it was also an attempt to take an alternative route in its narration style which not usually done by Odia media makers. I co-directed the film with Sanjay Kanungo while taking care of screenplay, pre-visualisation, story-boarding, production and post-production myself. Largely a spiritual experience than professional assignment, the film got some love from intellectuals and few TV viewers. The two part documentary was aired on Zee Kalinga (Zee Odisha now) as a 12 episodes TV series. In an exclusive screening, noted filmmaker Raju Mishra – one of the jury of National Film Awards that year – praised the film and opined that it could have won the national award in that year if it would have been submitted.