Kartika Sahoo, Akshay Kumar’s 'Sooryavanshi' co-star forced to sell vegetables in Odisha

Kartika Sahoo, who will be seen in Akshay Kumar's 'Sooryavanshi', has been selling vegetables to make ends meet owing to COVID-19 lockdown. Sahoo, who hails from the Garadpur block of the Kendrapada district in Odisha, said that he went to Mumbai to try his luck in Bollywood at the age of 17. 

For many years he worked as a bodyguard to film stars and cricketers such as Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar, among others. According to reports, Sahoo has a fighting sequence in 'Sooryavanshi'. The actor has been sitting without work since March.

To find work, he moved to state capital Bhubaneswar, but to no avail. In the end, Sahoo had to resort to selling vegetables in Rasulgad there. Kartika told ANI that he is hopeful that things will get back to normal, but till then he will survive by selling vegetables.

Over 1,500 new cases push Odisha's COVID-19 tally to 26,892; death toll climbs to 147

Odisha's COVID-19 tally shot up to 26,892 with 1,503 fresh cases, while the death toll rose to 147 as seven more people succumbed to the virus, a Health department official said on Monday. Three deaths were reported from Ganjam district and a fatality each was recorded in Sundergarh, Khurda, Cuttack and Malkangiri districts, he said.

Four of them were suffering from either diabetes or hypertension, the official said. Ganjam district, Odisha's coronavirus hotspot, accounted for the highest number of 491 fresh cases, followed by Khurda (223) and Cuttack (136).

Odisha now has 9,918 active COVID-19 cases, the Health department official said, adding that 16,794 people have recovered from the disease so far in the state. 

Though there has been a rise in positive cases, the death toll continues to remain below 1 per cent, he said. As many as 9,327 COVID-19 tests were conducted in Odisha on Sunday, taking the total number of samples tested for the virus in the state to 4,67,447

(with agency inputs)