IFA@Bangalore: अमर सिंह राठौड़ (Amar Singh Rathore) | Project Showcase@IFA with Ram Lal Bhatt | March 05, 2026 | Sabha Blr
“बादशाह की गद्दी को नमस्कार ! ख़बरदार, ख़बरदार, मेहरबान क़दरदान”
Amar Singh Rathore brings to life the legendary tale of the eponymous valiant prince through string puppetry, performed by the hereditary Master Katputhli artist Ram Lal Bhatt.
The show grows out of the story’s radical interpretation by activist and dramaturg late Smt. Tripurari Sharma, who reframed the tale as one of resistance, dignity, and defiance of feudal power. Bringing this text into puppetry is both an artistic choice and a political act for Ram Lal Bhatt. It allows the story to be retold through a form historically shaped and silenced by caste hierarchies, foregrounding the voices that were kept at the margins of Rajasthan’s cultural memory. It instead treats traditional puppetry as a space for dissent, reflection, and dialogue. This revival includes the creation of new puppets, dramaturgy, and performance processes.
अमर सिंह राठौड़
A legend reimagined, a legacy reclaimed, a master returning home
March 05, 2026 | 07:00 PM IST
Run Time: One hour and 30 minutes
Language: Hindi
Free and open to all with registration.
Please Note: Limited street parking is available near Sabha. Paid parking is available at Westside Mall 100 metres before Sabha.
Performers: Ram Lal Bhatt and Ishwar Singh
About the Artists:
Ram Lal Bhatt is a 62-year old hereditary Katputhli artist from the Natt (Nomadic-Dalit) community. Born into a caste-bound Jajmani Pratha, his community performed for royal courts while living under deep structural exclusion.
At 17, refusing a life defined by caste, he burned his ancestral puppets, breaking from the identity imposed upon him. Years later, through the Barefoot College (SWRC) and Ek Potlee Ret Ki, he returned to puppetry with a renewed purpose: to use it as a language of assertion and social critique.
This performance is his homecoming; a convergence of Tripurari ji’s radical text and Ram Lal ji’s political journey. By bringing Amar Singh Rathore to life through strings, he reclaims an art form he once abandoned, restoring to it both artistic excellence and the dignity of a community long denied its due. Watch his work here.
Ishwar Singh is an activist and researcher from Central Rajasthan. He currently works with Ek Potli Ret Ki as a programme coordinator, working on socio-political education of young people across States in North India.
This session is organised as part of Project Showcase@IFA, a series of presentations to showcase, discuss and engage audiences with the diverse projects we support and implement across programmes.
Image Courtesy: Ram Lal Bhatt
This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under the Arts Practice programme was supported by Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.