Dr. Itirani Samanta Entrepreneur, Creative Writer, Journalist, Editor (premier monthly family magazine of the state), Publisher, Director (Kadambini Media Pvt. Ltd.), National Award Winning Film Producer, Reputed Television Producer, Interviewer and Social Activist. 1 Dr. Itirani Samanta A women entrepreneur who is a Creative Writer, Journalist, Editor, Publisher, Director (Kadambini Media), National Award Winning Film Producer, Reputed Television Producer, Interviewer and Social Activist. Nationality : Indian Village : Kalarabank Dist : Cuttack State : Odisha PIN : 754132 Education : • Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering • Post Graduate Degree in Odia Literature • Masters Degree in Mass Communications and Advanced Journalism from Utkal University, Odisha • Ph.D in literature from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan Residence: Nilima Nilaya, 421/2359, Padmabati Vihar Sailashree Vihar, Bhubaneswar - 751 021, Odisha. Cell: +91 9937220229 / 9437014119 Office: Kadambini Villa, 421/2358, Padmabati Vihar Sailashree Vihar, Bhubaneswar - 751 021, Odisha. Tel: +91 7328841932 / 7328841933, 0674-2740519 / 2741260 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Website: https://itisamanta.com & https://kadambini.org Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itirani_Samanta Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ItiraniSamantaOfficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itiranisamanta 2 Dr. Itirani Samanta, an eminent writer, journalist, editor, publisher and national award winning film producer occupies a very signficant position in contemporary Odisha. Writing is her first love. In fact, from early childhood, she started cuddling up emotions and scribbled down her feelings on a regular basis. That in later stage culminated into stories, novels, poems, dramas, features, articles of social relevance, women empowerment & gender related issues. She has been continuously writing her editorials in ‘The Kadambini’, the most popular family magazine in Odisha on women related issues, women empowerment and current social problems since two decade. She rediscovered various facets of characters portrayed in the great epics of ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’. She flourished as a writer, braving many distractions that came in her life. Her first book ‘Tathaapi’ is a collection of short stories came out in the year 2001. Since then, she never looked back. In a literary career of more than twenty five years she has produced 20 books to her credit. Her books have received rave reviews and have been appreciated by readers as well. Dr. Samanta’s continued popularity amongst innumerable readers hinges on her series of editorials. These editorials in ‘The Kadambini’ are the interpretations and relevance of women characters in the popular epics like ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’ in today’s age. One definitely finds a sustained effort by her to draw the contours of modernity which accommodates strong female characters of our ancient society. Above all she is a self-made women who has dedicated her whole life for literature, art and social work. 3 EARLY LIFE Dr. Itirani Samanta was born on 1970 in a non-descript village Kalarabanka a rural hinterland in Cuttack district in the state of Odisha. She is the youngest of seven siblings of Nilimarani Samanta and Anadi Charan Samanta. She was neither fortunate to grow up with her father, who passed away while she was only two months old nor have a family income to support her early education and was brought up by her mother amidst abject poverty and sticky social challenges. Dwelling on margins the lives of herself and her six siblings could be hardly described as decent. The cemented reality of poverty in her life never deterred her from getting an education. With her academic excellence and daily errands or petty activities to augment her family’s income she stubbornly faced poverty at unimaginable lengths. It was her grit and firm passion of education that drove her through unchartered paths of economic deprivation to finally complete her engineering. As life had it, her passion of writing and reading in her early years culminated later in her becoming a writer. EDUCATION Dr. Itirani Samanta pursued her primary education in her village school at Kalarabanka and after that shifted to Cuttack and passed High School Certificate Examination from Khan Nagar High School. After her High School education she took admission in Ramadevi Women’s College, Bhubaneswar for perusing Higher Secondary education in Science. Soon after the completion of +2 science she joined Electronics & Tele-communication Engineering course to financially support her family. But she had a strong desire since her School days to become a writer, so her literary calling passion gained over her and after completion of engineering degree again she changed her academic pursuit to literature which brought her a meritorious Post Graduate Degree in Odia Literature and a lambent Masters Degree in Mass Communications and Advanced Journalism from Utkal University, Odisha. Later, she did her Ph.D in literature from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. She was also awarded Junior and prestigious Senior Fellowship of the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. 4 Career as Entrepreneur While Dr. Itirani Samanta climbed the scholarly career in literature and communication studies, the inner calling of the creative desire, forced her to dedicate herself for promotion of literature, art, culture and heritage of Odisha. The result of this alchemy of creative spirit and literary entrepreneurship led to the establishment of Kadambini Media Pvt. Ltd. with the sole objective of promoting art, culture, literature and cinema in Odisha and India as well. The journey of Dr. Samanta in setting up one of the premier media conglomerates is highly inspirational. In its odyssey of twenty years ‘The Kadambini’ has been propagating the empowerment of women as it’s nuclei along with overall development of the society and a change in certain perspectives. The monthly magazine see itself to be a torchbearer of Odia literature, art and culture at the global podium. With the highest readership of any Odia magazine; around a million ‘The Kadambini’s impact is staggering for propelling an equal, liberal, culturally acknowledged and sophisticated society. Apart from helming the editorial part of ‘The Kadambini’ Dr. Samanta looks after the marketing of magazine so that Odia literature gains enormous readership in popular paradigm and also on the advertising as sustaining a magazine is a highly tedious job. In her twenty years of service to Odia literature through ‘The Kadambini’ Dr. Samanta has not only thrown light on elegant prose and poetry but also on socially contentious topics which have enlightened the masses about the downtrodden and marginalised sections amply. ‘The Kadambini’s acceptance amongst lakhs portrays Dr. Samanta’s popularity and the acceptance of her writings. Dr. Itirani Samanta has proved herself as a successful entrepreneur in the field of literature, education, art, culture and film production. She has received the women entrepreneurship award. 5 KADAMBINI MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED (A vision for uplifting Art, Culture and Literature) From a modest start as the publisher of a family magazine, the organisation today has emerged as a reputed publication house publishing novels, short stories, poetry collections, feature collections and translations of literary masterpieces from other Indian and foreign languages. Dr. Itirani Samanta, the director of Kadambini Media is a woman with a dream. ‘The Kadambini’, a premier monthly family magazine and ‘The Kunikatha’, a magazine for children & youth, are two unique products of this media house run by Dr. Itirani Samanta, who also serves as the editor of these two largest Odia magazines. ‘The Kadambini’ is her brainchild through which she dreamt of ushering in a creative renaissance of sorts in the state. As an educational entrepreneur she is successfully managing two schools in her native village Kalarabank. 6 Contribution to Odia Language and Literature In 2000 AD when most of the leading odia magazines were struggling to get published regularly. Some of the magazine publishers were also closed their publication house. Which resulted a great loss for propagation of odia language and literature. Because magazines are the breeding ground of language, literature and culture. At that point of time Dr. Itirani Samanta took a bold step in publishing a colourful family magazine ‘The Kadambini’ which set a new era in the history of odia magazines. Her only resources was her passion, determination and hard work to bring the magazine up to the state. ‘The Kadambini’ is the largest circulated (certified by ABC) premier monthly family magazine of Odisha with the largest readership. A comprehensive family magazine ‘The Kadambini’ has captured the mindscape of all sections of people of the state. It has also created it’s space in the heart of Odia's residing in the country and abroad. This attractive monthly magazine with its broad content-mix and quality printing, caters to the taste of all cultured Odia's regardless of age, gender and income level. ‘The Kadambini’ offers something for everyone in the family. Each issue contains cover-feature on topical social and cultural issues, current social problems, lifestyle and fashion trends, movies, television, fiction, poetry, serial novels, Odia translations classics from other languages, sports, health, beauty, cookery and household tips. The magazine hits the stands with unfailing regularity