Oriya album

In this article I will discuss about the Oriya music album industry. For this purpose I have excluded the songs from Oriya films and songs produced by Aakash Vani (AIR). Scope of this writing includes both devotional (bhajan) songs and modern songs.
Now-a-days we have so many music companies. But in the early days, when there were no music company in Orissa, companies like Gaathani and HMV were releasing records of Oriya artists. Later Oriya companies like JE (now Sarthak) and Samrat produced music cassettes besides geetinatyas, jaatras and comedies.
In the early 1990s album music saw a little degradation both in content and form. Dual meaning lyrics and hindi film music initiated songs made inroad to the industry. Then only audio albums were available. In 1995, Jai Prakash Mohanty (popularly known as JP) made a brave attempt to picturise popular old songs of veterans like Akshaya Mohanty, Prafulla Kar Pranab Pattanaik, Chitta Jena and others. These were being telecast by Doordarshan in the programme ‘Rajanigandha’. Popularity of this programme caught the imagination of the music companies and they started producing videos of their new music albums. Now Oriya album industry has grown in size and the quality of work has improved a lot. Even albums are more popular than film songs in Orissa. Hit albums are being dubbed and released in West Bengal, and response is encouraging.
Here is a list of some of the most appreciated personalities involved with album industry.
Singers: Ira Mohanty, T. Shouri, Sailabhama, Shakti Misra, Barun Misra, Bibhu Kishore, Pankaj Jal, Namita Agarwal, Manasi, Pami, Sanghamitra, Kumar Bapi, Sricharan, Subhasis Mahakul, Govind Chandra, Saurabh, Narendra Kumar, Anasuya Nath.
Music directors: Veterans : Swarup Nayak, Late Saroj Nanda, Amarendra Mohanty, Deepak Kumar, Manmath Mishra. Contemporaries : Malay Misra, Abhijeet Majumdar, Santiraj Khosla, Purna Khuntia, Giridhar Gamang (former chief minister of Orissa), Braja Jena, Gagan Vihari, Prem Anand (real name Premanand).
Lyricists : Nizam, Alekh Biswal, Arun Mantri, Basantraj Samal, Srikanta Goutam, Nirmal Nayak, Panchanan Nayak, Jatindra Pradhan.
Actress : Lipi, Meghna, Kajal, Mithi, Sweety, Deepa, Jina, Lopamudra, Gargi, Susmita, Naina, Soma Hota, Soma Bhowmik, Monalisa(3).
Actor : Deepak, Late Papu, Bulu, Bobby Mishra, Aakash,Salil Mitra.
By virtue of their performance, some of the actors like Anubhav, Sabyasachi, Ameli, Mithi, Kajal have established themselves in the film industry also.
In spite of its success story, album industry is facing some problems. It is alleged that mafia (bhai) and builders are investing money in the industry for other reasons, not for the sake music. Stories are published about the rural girls aspiring to act in the albums are being exploited. Music companies are encouraging cheap lyrics for instant success. Bhajans are lacking devotional feelings. Business wise piracy is a threat to the music companies.