Category: NATAKA DIARY

Baripada – Tha :-15/12/2025 Rikh Bhavanipatna’s leading cultural institution “Sangam” organized in the state level children’s drama competition, the play “Kandatcha Banani” performed by Purnchandrapur Government Higher Primary School, Baripadar, enthralled the audience and won 8 awards and earned the honor of bringing fame to the school and the district. The school was awarded for the lighting design, Best Besbhusa, Trilochan Sahu as the best director, Ajith Kumar Manigarahi as the best dramatist, Devasmita Savat as the best actress, Krishna Dutt as the best actor and Brajkishore Mahanath as the 3rd best actor. Rupam Ram contributed to the music and Saroj Kumar Sabat and Bama Charan Banra contributed to the stage management. There was a wave of happiness in the school and the local area for the news. All the teachers/students, students, parents including the school principal Saumya Das congratulated everyone who participated in the play.

74 people participated in the State Government’s Senior Citizen Pilgrimage Scheme from Nuapada district today and traveled to Rameshwar, one of the Charidhams of India. The senior citizens who were selected in this scheme arrived at the Nuapada Tourism Office today. There, the doctors examined their health and provided the necessary medicines. District Magistrate Madhusudan Das and Superintendent of Security Omritpal Singh greeted the pilgrims with rose flowers and wished them a pleasant journey. On this occasion, the District Magistrate addressed everyone and said that all these pilgrims are lucky because in Odisha government’s complete free service scheme, they have got the opportunity to visit the two major pilgrimage sites of India, Rameshwar and Ma Meenakshi, Madurai. Behind this visit, there is full cooperation and good wishes of the district administration. There are 17 couples and 40 single travelers in this group. Tomorrow, along with pilgrims from six other districts, they will all travel to Rameswar by a special train. Madurai will also visit and return on the next 20th. Nuapada Additional District Magistrate Subas Chandra Rait, District Krida Officer Rajendra Prasad Budhai, District Tourism Officer Ghanshyam Mundakhar were present at the Nuapada Tourism Office and launched the pilgrimage by showing the green flag to the bus. Biswanath Samal’s report from Nuapada, Fast News Odisha

Nabarangpur, (Ranjit Nayak) T: 10.12.2025 Rikh: Yesterday T: 09.12.2025 Rikh: The three-day stage drama festival held at Shastri Bhavan has ended spectacularly! On the final day of this cultural event organized before Mandei Festival-2025, the comedy and social message play “Na Gop Na Karari” written and directed by senior artist Durga Prasad Pradhani was staged! In this play, the behavior of a son towards a father in his old age was presented in a funny way! Which impressed the audience! Stage actors like Devdas Mahakund, Durga Prasad Pradhani, Falguni Pan, Kali Kinkar Patnaik, Sasmita Patnaik, Vikram Das, Prakash Chandra Barik, GV Rav Prasad, Dekshisha Mohanty, Aloy Sahu, Kiran Kumar Rao showed their best acting skills in the play! The duo of Kishore Tripathi and Falguni Pot contributed to the music direction! Hon’ble District Collector Dada Maheshwar Swamyu joined the program as the chief guest and gave a summary speech on the importance of stage drama and its preservation in the society! Finally, senior artistes Devdas Mahankud and Prakash Samantarai were felicitated by Mandei Festival Committee Chairman and Additional District Collector (General) Tapan Khuntia and Additional District Collector (Revenue) Biswajit Burman for outstanding contribution in the field of drama! All other artists were also honored with certificates and gifts! On this occasion, District Culture Officer Ghasiya Harijan thanked all the committee members and all the officials and municipal authorities present!

Ranjit Naik’s report from Nabarangpur First News Odisha !

Nabarangpur, (Ranjit Naik) Date: 08.12.2025 Rikh: On the occasion of Nabarangpur District Folk Festival Mandei 2025, the second evening of the Stage Drama Festival in the premises of Staniya Shastri Bhawan, the social drama “Damankar Dar Suruj” sponsored by Triskheti Sanskarti Samiti, sponsored by Tentlikhunti Panchayat Samiti, has been staged! On this occasion, Additional District Collector (General) Tapan Kumar Khuntia and (Revenue) Biswajit Burman joined as distinguished guests and started the program by worshiping the photo of Lord Jagannath! Nabarangpur MLA representative Devdas Mahakund, DIPR and Manoj Behera, Samaj Sevi Anana Tripathi, DC and Ghasia Harijan, Assistant District Collector Ashutosh Pan were present on the main stage as one of the guests. Based on the story of how a tribal nat guru struggles with the society to save his play in the modern era thanks to cinema and mobile phones, the play is written and directed by telefilm director Manoj Kumar Patnaik and stars Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Ashutosh Pan, Nirmal Kumar Sahu, Lakshmi Singh, Shiv Shankar Padhi, B. Shiv Shankar Dora, Pratibha Gupta, Benu Gopal, N. Sumit Kumar, Shaim Sarathi Singh, Manisha Viswan, Pachuman Nayak, Subrata Jena, Tufan Sardar, Ritesh Sahu, Gautam Sahu played the main roles! In the said play, Kishore Tripathi and Murali Dhar Patnaik did the music, while Samar Kumar did the vocals. To give a chance to new talent, the director of the drama, Manoj Patnaik, has succeeded in creating new stage artists by giving 10 new talents a chance to act on stage!

Ranjit Naik’s report from Nabarangpur First News Odisha !

Baripada 28/11 (Fast News Odisha) Dhol instrument guru Bighnaraj Dhada and Meeuri guru Biranchi Mahanth have been honored with the Odisha Music Drama Academy Award. The state government has given the award to both of them for the current year 2025. Similarly, Kabichandra Kalicharan Patnaik Youth Award given by the academy to young and emerging artistes has also been given to 3 prominent puppeteers of Mayurbhanj. For the year 2024, it was given to Shiv Charan Mahanth, while for the year 2025, Sachina Dhada and Sushant Behera received the said award. However, it is known that five people have been awarded by the Academy for the first time in the world of Mayurbhan Chou Dance. Shubhashri Mukherjee, the executive director of the project camp started in 2016 by the district administration for the conservation and restoration of Chou dance and expert committee member of Odisha Music Drama Academy congratulated the awardee. He said that this is a special achievement in the history of Mayurbhanj. Similarly, after the end of Durbar Raj in Mayurbhanj, indifference was seen in all areas towards Chou dance. Bibhudatta Das, the director of Project Camp, expressed the hope that awarding the state academy to five artistes at one time will be an inspiration for the future generations.

Instead, [Date]: All preparations have reached the final stage for the upcoming National Theatre Festival, to be held at Shaheed Smruti Bhavan, Baripada, under the initiative of leading theatre organization Ame: Baripada. This was informed by the chief organizer and General Secretary, Chinmaya Das Pattnayak. A final review meeting was held today with members of the organizing committee present, where arrangements for the nine-day festival were discussed in detail. The festival will run from September 6 to 14, with plays staged every evening at 6:30 p.m. Audiences will witness performances from reputed theatre groups, including: Jati Nandighosha (Bhubaneswar), Nashta Natakara Natyakar (Balasore), Remo (Koraput), Papi (Baripada), Rebati, Sebati Ei Bati (Bhubaneswar), Maya Mridanga (Kolkata), Jibana Jemiti (Rourkela), Semane Ama Pratinidhi (Karanjia), Jaha Kahibi Sata Kahibi (Dhenkanal), Jarayu (Berhampur), Mahasangramara Mahanayak (Bhubaneswar), Dronacharya Shrigurube Namah (Assam), with the closing play staged by Ame: Baripada itself. This was announced by Festival President Dr. Kailash Chandra Mahanti. Vice-President and senior journalist Dr. Bijay Kumar Agrawal and Major Kalpana Das urged citizens to attend in large numbers and encourage the participating artists. Alongside the theatre festival, several parallel events have been planned. A Theatre Discussion Circle will be held at Baripada Stadium Conference Hall on September 7 and 14 at 11:00 a.m., while a painting and photo exhibition will take place at Shaheed Smruti Bhavan on September 12 and 13. Each evening, eminent artists, directors, playwrights, and creative personalities will also be honored and felicitated as part of the program, according to Secretary Das Pattnayak.

Baripada – Thu :- 27/11/2025 Rikh Local Martyr Memorial Hall 6-day National Multilingual Drama Festival has been organized under the auspices of the local Martyr’s Memorial Building. In the last evening, the drama “Janmamati” of Rourkela has been staged. Vivekananda Das, Pralay Shetpathi, Sudesh Rani Raut, Puspalata Vishoi, Sasmita Bek, Shreyashree, Shudashree, Prathi and Kalyani played the lead roles while Shaktiprasad Mishra did the music, Rajesh Shetpathi did the lighting, Pralaye Shetpathi did the scenery and Prasanna Shetpathi contributed to the drama. In a meeting presided over by Mayor Krishnananda Mohanty, chairman of the festival committee, Sudshanshu Dwivedi, editor of the Odisha Drama Association, joined as the chief guest and expressed that drama has a great impact on people’s lives and praised the institute for organizing the festival. Attended and highlighted the 6-day long drama festival. Manoj Jena, Apabha Sahu and Shubhendu Sahu conducted the stage. Camps were held every day. Paresh Sahu, director of the institute, thanked all the theater organizations and audiences who made the drama festival a success.

Baripada – Date:- 08/09/2025 Rikh Local Martyrs’ Memorial Building We: 2 dramas have been staged on the 3rd evening of the National Theater Festival organized in Baripada Anukully. The chief guest of the 3rd evening is National award winning film director and sponsor Gadhar Puti and senior actor director Kshirod Sit and Kumarmani Naik and Kashinath Rana and Pithbas as the guest of honor. In the meeting presided over by President Dr. Kailash Chandra Mohanty, Chinmay Das Patnaik, general editor of the organizing committee, conducted the program. In the presence of a full audience, the play “Revati Sevati Ai Vati” prepared by the theater consciousness of Bhubaneswar was staged. But the brilliant performance of established actress Sujatha Priyambada in the character-driven play kept the audience engaged I Subodh Patnaik’s play written and Sujata Priyambada’s play directed by Bharadan Dixit contributed music I The second play was Baripaddar’s realistic drama “Papi” performed I Gauri Das’ play written and directed by Ananda Shankar Das Soumya Shetpathi, Rajendra Sahu, Ashok Patnaik, Prakash Shetpathi, Subrata Dey, Satyajit Sahu, Animesh Ghosh, Abhijit Panda, Ananda Dash Lipsa Panda and Dal Mishra acted while Shakti Prasad Mishra contributed the music. Tomorrow evening, a play “Maya Mridang” produced by Kolkata’s Sodmugda Naat Sanstha will be performed, reports said. Coordinator Somnath Singh reported I

Baripada – Date:- 09/09/2025 Rich Local Martyr’s Memorial Hall We: On the 4th evening of National Drama Festival organized in Baripada Anukuli, the play “Maya Mridang” prepared by Drama Center of Damdam, Kolkata was staged. Ex-mayor Dinkrishna as chief guest, and Baripada DFO Govind Chandra Viswal, lawyer as guest of honor. Sujata Mishra attended and inaugurated the program. In the meeting presided over by President Dr. Kailash Chandra Mohanty, actor, director and general editor of the organizing committee Chinmay Das Patnaik conducted the program while Ms. Sudesna Bishoi and master Shreyshanshu Behera presented the program. The play, inspired by Mustafa Siraj’s Bengali folk art and written and directed by Rakesh Ghosh, stars Ranjan Bose, Shamashish Pahadi, Krishna Dey, Kisanu Chakraborty, Sampad Debobrata, Poulami, Namitha, Moumita, Manas, Sandeep, Apabha, Sanj, while music is by Abhijit Acharya and Sreejith Mandal, in lighting. Arun Khalsa, Nandita Bose and Sheikh Ibrahim in the set design, Ranjan Bose in the costume design and Neil Kaushik in the set design. Tomorrow evening two plays “Life As It Is” produced by Rangmanch, Rourkela and “They are our representatives” produced by Pallavi, Karanjia informed media coordinator Somnath Singh.