BHUBANESWAR: Eminent Odia music director and singer Amarendra Mohanty succumbed to Covid-19 on Monday. He was 63.He was under treatment at a private hospital in the city after testing positive in the last week of April. Mohanty was under ventilator support for the last three days.Born on February 9 in 1958 in Kendrapara, he has several bhajans and movie songs to his credit both as singer and composer.
Having composed hundreds of hit Odia songs for films in his three-decade career in the industry, the most popular being ‘Puchuki Gali’, Mohanty composed songs for popular Odia movies such as ‘Bhai Hela Bhagari’, ‘Basuda’, ‘Stree’, ‘Anti Churi Tanti Kate’, ‘Bapa’, ‘Maguni ra Sagada’, ‘Suna Panjuri’, and ‘Kandhei Akhire Luha’, among others.
A resident of Cuttack, Mohanty was trained in classical music and started his career with Akashvani, Cuttack. Simultaneously, he worked in the Odia film industry as a singer and in the 90s debuted as a music director with the film Shradhanjali. The last film that he was part of was ‘Gaan Ra Naa Galuapur’. Stating that Mohanty’s death is a huge loss to the industry, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said he will be remembered for his unique music compositions.