Year-long celebrations to mark birth centenary of AIR legend Madhusudan Panigrahi

Berhampur: Madhumaya Foundation has announced year-long celebrations to mark the birth centenary of AIR legend Madhusudan Panigrahi.

In a homage to Panigrahi, the foundation announced that it will organise the celebrations from June 9, 2023 to June 9, 2024 to mark the 100th birth anniversary of the legendary broadcast media personality of Odisha.

Madhusudan Panigrahi was a renowned programme director and visionary who was the first Odia Director of All India Radio station out of Odisha at Jagdalpur in Madhya Pradesh. He was the first Odia to be posted as the Director of Commercial Broadcasting Centre of AIR Cuttack. Madhusudan Panigrahi was associated with many stalwarts, including Kabichandra Kalicharan Patnaik, Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Suren Mohanty, Nayan Mahanty and P V Krushna Murthy. A preparatory meeting of Madhumaya Foundation was held in Bhaba Nagar here chaired its advisor, famous anchor and the legend’s son Hrushikesh Panigrahi.

When Madhusudan Panigrahi was the Director, AIR Jagdalpur, in 1974, he introduced a programme on ‘Halbi’, a spoken language on Odisha-MP border and considered as the Eastern Indo-Aryan language. Interestingly, such ‘Halbi’ programmes are still continuing.

He introduced the School Broadcasting programme in Odisha for the benefit of the students of the State which was very popular.

His production of ‘Aranya Ra Banhi’ (The Jungle Fire), on the life of Saheed Laxman Nayak in 1964 when he was the Programme Executive of AIR Jeypore Station, is considered to be the first documentation of the great martyr of Odisha. His research-oriented programmes on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, former Vice President B D Jatti, internationally acclaimed scientist J B S Haldane and Swami Chidananda are still considered as masterpieces. A musical outburst on ‘Kalijai’, the famous poem by Godabarish Mishra which was broadcast on AIR Cuttack and still remains popular, was also planned by Madhusudan Panigrahi.

Madhusudan Panigrahi was born in Ghumusara in Ganjam. He joined All India Radio, Cuttack in 1948 and retired in 1982. He launched Madhumaya Foundation in 1999 by utilising his pension funds to preserve art, culture and social values.

The foundation decided to honour the toppers of Journalism and Mass Communication of Berhampur University in memory of Madhusudan Panigrahi every year. The autobiography ‘Thik Duniya’ by Madhusudan Panigrahi would be launched by the foundation.