Jatra bookings showing promise
The advance bookings for this year for jatra troupes are showing a lot of promise.
Traditionally, bookings of troupes performing Bengal’s traditional folk theatre, jatra start on the first day of the Rath Yatra festival, which was yesterday.
The troupes had suffered huge losses due to the ban on jatra during the Covid pandemic, and are struggling hard to come out of its shadow.
Advance bookings for 40-odd plays began on the first day in Chitpore (the locality of Kolkata which is the hub of the troupes), which is the pre-Covid level, Tapan Sarkar, secretary of the Paschim Banga Jatra Academy, a government organisation that supports the medium, said happily.
According to people associated with the profession, the livelihood of around 50,000 people, including actors, musicians and technicians, is dependent on jatra.
