Bijay Mohanty was born on April 8 in Pandiri and raised in Baripada, Odisha. He is an Oriya cinema actor. Bijay joined the National School of Drama and graduated with classmates like
Naseeruddin Shah
,
Raj Babbar
and
Om Puri
. He started his career with theatre and then moved on to work in Oriya films. Bijay Mohanty started his career in 1975. In 1977, he started working in the Oriya film industry, and his first movie Chilika Tire, won the National Award for that year. During his early days as an actor, he was pursued mostly for negative roles. But over time, he has acted almost all kind of roles, ranging from hero, villain, comedian etc. Some of his notable films are – Arati, Mamata Mage Mula, Aei Aama Sansara, Bhisma Pratigya and Bhai Hela Bhagaree. He also directed a movie Bhuli Huena. In 1987, Bijay won the Orissa Cine Critics Award for the "Best Actor of the Decade". He became a drama professor at Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in 1977 and retired soon after.
Bijay is married to
Tandra Ray
, an Oriya actress and they have done many of their movies starring opposite to each other. Together Bijay and Tandra have a daughter Jashmine. Bijay dominated the Oriya film industry in the 80s and the 90s. Bijay joined Indian National Congress in 2014.