Gopal Chhotray Compilation

Gopal Chhotray (1916-2003) is the main architect of modern Odia drama. He had brought about a drastic change in the content and style of Odia drama.

He was born at Puranagarh village of Jagatsinghpur district on April 20, 1916, but spent his entire life at Cuttack. He passed away on January 22, 2003.

His first drama was Pheria, written in 1946, after which he has written more than 15 original drama. He also wrote 8 drama based on famous Odia novels. Most them were staged successfully. There was a time, when the two professional drama companies of Cuttack were staging his dramas everyday. He reigned over the Odia drama world for than three decades.

Cuttack station of the All India Radio was started in 1948 and Gopala Chhotray was associated with that from the very beginning. About 500 of his plays were aired on the radio. Unfortumanetely most of these manuscripts are now lost. While working at AIR, Chhotray revived folk drama or opera and gave it a new direction while maintaining the musical tradition of Odisha. About 20 LP records and cassettes were made featuring his works. The most popular among these was the opera adaptation titled Srimati Samrjani, based on the famous story Patent Medicine written by Fakir Mohan Senapati. He has written around 100 drama and features for Doordarshan, including many serials. One of them is the mythological story Devi Durga.

Contribution of Gopala Chhotray to Odia drama and opera is unforgettable.

Digital versions of Gopal Chhotray’s writings can be accessed via the table below which provides links for previewing/downloading these.Clicking on any image below will open a preview of the title and the full title can be downloaded if desired by clicking on the Download link.