Shantanu Mohapatra (1936–2020) was an Indian musician, singer and composer. Apart from Odia, he sang in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

. He also directed music for Odia,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and

Telugu films Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film Nagar, Hyderabad, Telug ...

. During his lifetime, he composed music for more than 1,600 songs.

Early life

Shantanu Mohapatra was born on 6 January 1936, in

Baripada Baripada () is a city and a municipality in Mayurbhanj district in the state of Odisha, India. Located along the east bank of the Budhabalanga river, Baripada is the cultural centre of north Odisha. In recent years, it has emerged as an e ...

Mayurbhanj district Mayurbhanj district is one of the List of districts of Odisha, 30 districts of Odisha state in eastern India and the largest in the state by area, nearly equivalent to Tripura. The district's headquarters is located in Baripada, with other majo ...

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

. From the age of five, he learned music from Guru Banchhanidhi Panda. He began performing on stage at the age of eight. In 1956, he graduated from

IIT Kharagpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT-KGP) is a public institute of technology, research university, and autonomous institute established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal. Founded in 1951, the in ...

with a degree in Applied Geology and Geophysics. While studying at IIT, he became involved with the

Indian People's Theatre Association Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) is the oldest association of theatre-artists in India. IPTA was formed in 1943 during the British rule in India, and promoted themes related to the Indian freedom struggle. Its goal was to bring cultur ...

(IPTA) and mastered the art of group music. He learned music direction from

Salil Chowdhury Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1925 – 5 September 1995) was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Malayalam films, Malayalam films. ...

. In June 1956, he joined the Department of Mines & Geology,

Government of Odisha The Government of Odisha and its Districts of Odisha, 30 districts consists of an executive branch, executive, led by the List of Governors of Odisha, Governor of Odisha, a judiciary, and a legislative branch. Like other states in India, the ...

and retired from there as a director. He worked as a geophysicist in Odisha Mining Corporation till retirement in 1994.

Music career

Santanu Mahapatra made his debut as an Odia movie music composer in 1963 with the film '' Surjyamukhi''. He composed music for 50 odd movies, features, telefilms, documentaries and especially art movies. He has also been credited as the first Odia music director to work in films in five different languages include Odia, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese and Telugu. His filmography include '' Surjyamukhi''(1963), ' 'Arundhati''(1967), '' Chilika Teerey''(1977), '' Bagh Bahadur''(1989) etc. Mohapatra had composed the first modern Odia ballad 'Konark Gatha' with lyricist Gurukrushna Goswami and it was sung by

Akshaya Mohanty Akshaya Mohanty, also known as ''Khoka Bhai'', was an Indian singer, lyricist, composer, musician and writer in Odia. He has contributed Odia bhajans, Odissi songs, folk songs, film and non-film modern light songs in Odisha on contemporary t ...

. He has done more than 1,900 compositions, including 53 feature and telefilms films, 10 Jatras, 60 dramas by AIR (Cuttack) and 10 dance dramas to his credit.

Honors and awards

Lalit Kala Akademi The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of Art (LKA) is India's national academy of fine arts. It is an autonomous organisation, established in New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, in ...

Award – 2004 * Odisha Film Critics Award, 1995 * Mother Teresa Millennium Award, 2005

Death

He died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

on 30 December 2020, at the age of 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohapatra, Shantanu Indian male playback singers 1936 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Indian composers 20th-century Indian singers Singers from Odisha People from Baripada 20th-century Indian male singers