Noted Music Director Shantanu Mohapatra is No More

Bhubaneswar (Reporters Today Bureau): Veteran Odia music director Shantanu Mohapatra passed away at a private hospital here, last night. He was 84. Mohapatra was suffering from acute pneumonia and kidney-related ailments, and admitted to the hospital for treatment.

He was associated with Odia music industry for almost 60 years. He composed first modern Odia ballad “Konark Gatha” with lyrics by lyricist Gurukrushna Goswami and sung by Akshay Mohanty. He also wrote ‘Kalijae’ which was sung by Sikandar Alam.

Santanu has many firsts to his credits in the field of Odia music as a music composer like the first modern lullaby in AIR (‘Soi pada re dhana’ sung by Santilata Rout), first qawali (ae ranga rahiba nahi from Surjyamukhi), first bhangra tune, and first fusion and jumping note (Ago Chandrika by Raghunath Panigrahi).