Chadar Badar: Tribal Puppetry of the Santhals
 2025-11-05 16:28:32.jpg)
Date: 12th December, 2025
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 PM
Venue: KCC, Amphitheatre
Open to All
As part of AMI Arts Festival 2025, Kolkata Centre for Creativity presents Chadar Badar: Tribal Puppetry of the Santhals — an immersive programme combining film, practitioner insights, and a live demonstration.
Chadar Badar is an ancient string puppetry tradition practised across West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha. Crafted from 5–9 inch carved wooden puppets, this unique form employs a concealed lever-and-string mechanism to animate figures on a portable stage draped with cloth. Through music, verse, and narrative, it conveys community histories, folklore, and lessons of social life.
The evening will include:
- A short film contextualising the tradition
- A practitioner talk by Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardees Sudip Gupta and Sriparna Gupta
- A live puppetry excerpt showcasing the form in action
This special programme spotlights a distinctive Santhal heritage, offering audiences a layered understanding of its artistry and the contemporary challenges of revival.
ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
Banglanatak is a non-profit social enterprise that uses culture-based approaches to foster inclusive and sustainable development and poverty alleviation in rural India, particularly in West Bengal. They specialize in empowering traditional artists and communities by revitalizing intangible cultural heritage through their Art For Life (AFL) program, which transforms artists into micro-enterprises.
