Patachitra is one of the oldest indigenous art forms in our country. It is a folk tradition of visual storytelling accompanied by the songs performed by the patuas. The patuas show the story painted on the Patachitra and narrate the story by singing songs at the same time. Patuas travel from villages to villages and perform the POTER GAAN with their own painted patachitra to earn the livings for livelihood.
Bharatpur is a very small village situated at the southwest foothills of Susunia hill in Bankura District. The village is located in a very remote location, about 25 km away from the Bankura Railway station. There are some families living in that village are painting Patachitra for years. The skills of painting have passed from one generation to the next generation. The daily life of the Santhals, wild animals, Adivasi nritya, and mythological stories related to the Adivasi life are the subjects of their patachitra.

The use of organic colours extracted from different natural materials was the most iconic character of Patachitra of any places including Bharatpur. But nowadays chitrakars are using synthetic acrylic colours on it. From a previous field visit by our team, we were able to identify their mindset behind sifting from natural colours to acrylic colours.
∙ Acrylic colours are more vibrant than the colours they are using.
∙ Acrylic colours are more sustainable on the canvas than organic colours they are exacting
∙ They don’t have the awareness of the importance of using natural colours and the harmfulness of using synthetic colours.

Under the ‘Community Leadership Program’, presented by our organization ‘Bridging Culture and Art Foundation’ a two-day program was designed in collaboration with the primary partner ‘WICCI’- Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, resource partner Botanical Survey of India, Local Partner Lok Sanghati and museum Partner Paschim Rarh Itihas o Sanskriti Charcha Kendra.

On 26th March 2022 we organized a documentary film screening at Bharatpur Prathamik Vidyalaya at Bharatpur, Bankura, for the artisans on ‘Indigo Dye making technique’. Our objective was to create the awareness among the artisans that it is possible to make vibrant colours from natural elements by following the right method and using the right technique.

We reached the venue on time with our resource partners. The local partner managed to arrange a projector for the film screening at primary school, as there were no such facilities available in that space. Although we were not sure about the impact of the film screening even after reaching the venue, when the film was projected on the screen, all doubts vanished. There, about 20 artisans including the senior citizens and the women were present as audience and all of them were watching the documentary with full of interest. Team members from the Resource Partner team helped them by explaining some of the processes shown in the film in their vernacular language by eliminating the hard academic terminologies and using easy-to-understand terms.

After the film screening, our team interacted with the artisans to get an idea about their drawing techniques, and use of colours. They show us some of their organic colours extracted from the leaves (green colour), a piece of rock (Red colour, and the rock was red hematite). The information, that came out from those conversations had helped us to design the next program for them based on their needs.
After the program, the artisans were very excited and said that they want to learn the techniques to make sustainable natural dye from natural elements.