Who was Geeta Patnaik? Check Odia Singer's Career and Achievements

The Odia music industry has deprived itself of a gem with the death of the great playback singer Geeta Patnaik aged 73. She was known to rule the Odia film songs in the 1970s and was famous with her soulful voice and decades long duet with Akshaya Mohanty.

Geeta Patnaik was an artist who came to the limelight of Odishi music in the 1970s and became one of the major All India Radio artists. 

She was born in Odisha where she developed her versatility of voice in regional places, and she then conquered playback singing. There is limited information in trusted sources regarding the birth records, but her origins were closely connected with the cultural center of Cuttack.

Geeta Patnaik’s Career

In the early seventies, Patnaik started her career in Akashvani, and she established a base in live performances. Towards the mid-1970s, she switched to Odia, and performed hits with her unique voice in collaboration with Akshaya Mohanty. 

This was the period when she went through a transition of radio to the cinema radium for almost thirty years.

Her breakthrough was that of making prolific film contributions where she has voiced 15+ Odia movies, which have everlasting melodies. 

Works with Mohanty launched her to stardom and combined melodies with emotion in regional hits. The artistry of Patnaik was in Hindi, Gujarati, Rajasthani as well as Marathi tracks as a way of demonstrating her versatility.

Awards and Honors

She won Odisha State Film Award -Best Playback Singer in 1982 in Asanta Graha. Her effort was recognized later in the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. These awards solidified her as a pillar of the culture.

Personal Life

Geeta Patnaik married Krishna Gopal Batra and lived in the Mohantipada district of Cuttack. Her family was of support to her career as she had a brother-in-law and a journalist by the name Pradosh Patnaik. She was active in events till the end of her days.

Death and Legacy

Patnaik took ill on February 12, 2026, at an event at Bhubaneswar literary festival, and she had a brain stroke; she was emergency taken to Capital Hospital, which was at the time a private hospital in Cuttack. She was declared dead on February 15 (some reports date it to 16), and her last rites were performed at Sati Chaura crematorium. Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi called it an irretrievable loss; Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan celebrated her lifelong inspiration.

Geeta Patnaik songs resonate in Odia hearts and are affecting generations. Her life lives on through tributes and playlists.