Devdas Chhotray

Devdas Chhotray is an Odia Writer, Administrator, and Academician. He was born on 25 November 1946 in his residential city, Cuttack, Odisha. His father, Gopal Chhotray, received the Padma, Central Sahitya Academi, and Sangeet Natak Academi Award and was considered an architect of modern theatre. He studied at Ravenshaw College (now University) and Cornell University. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1971.

He was the Deputy Commissioner of Dhanbad, Santhal Parganas, Bihar, from 1977-80, Additional Secretary in the Home Department of the Orissa Government, Administrator of the Subarnarekha Multipurpose Project from 1989-95, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Food Processing from 1996-99 and Ministry of Coal & Mines from 1999-02, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs from 2003-05, and Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs from June 2005 to November 2006.

He was also the Director of Orissa Film Development Corporation from 1983-89 and again from 1996-98. He became the Chairman of the publications committee in the fifth International Children's Film Festival in 1987. He was the Film and Television Institute of India Governing Council's Vice-President in Pune from 1999-2001. He was the First Vice-Chancellor of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack. He assumed office from 15 November 2006 to November 2011 and obtained UGC approval within six months.

His works include poetry, short stories, musicals, lyrics, and screenplays. He is the writer of a collection of stories, Lal Machha (Red Fish) and the lyricist of 75-plus films in Oriya and TV musicals. He collaborated as a principal songwriter with a well-known modern Oriya music pioneer, Akshaya Mohanty Akshaya Mohanty was born on October 12, 1936, in C >> Read More... , from the 1960s until he died in 2002. He wrote the screenplay of Indradhanura Chhai (Shadows of the Rainbow), screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 and won the Best Film Award at the Sochy International Festival. The English translations of his Oriya poems, like Nila Saraswati (Blue Muse) and Hati Saja Kara (Order the Elephants), were published by Pimlico Books in London. His Hindi poems anthology, Ret Ki Sidhi (A Staircase of Sand), was published in Delhi.

He is the lyricist of many famous works, which include Boura Hatabaksha, Nandini I Love U, Puja Pain Phulatie, and Jaga Hatare Pagha. He received the Prajatantra Bisuv Milan Award, Utkal Samaj Centenary (Gangadhar Meher Samman) Award, Odisha Excellence Award 2018, and the 2008 Rajdhani Book Fair Award for poetry. Some of his books are Manakharapara Phula, Bijubabu, and Nila Saraswati.