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Bengal

IPL X: 200 folk artistes to showcase talent

As many as 200 folk artistes from Bengal will showcase their talent at the inaugural ceremony in Kolkata as part of the 10th edition of the Indian Premiere League (IPL) celebrations.

This year, there will be eight separate inaugural ceremonies in the home grounds of every team. The inaugural ceremony for Kolkata will be held on April 13 ahead of the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab at Eden Gardens.

According to an official of the state Information and Cultural Affairs Department, the artistes who are enrolled under the state government's Loko Proshar scheme will be performing in the programme. "The artistes have performed in many big events in different parts of the country. This is again another event that will be watched by people from different parts of the world," the official said.

Artistes of different genres of folk dance including baul, chaau, natua, dhak, dhunuchi and tribal dance will be participating in the event and will reach three days in advance of the programme for their rehearsals.

Most of the artistes are coming from districts like Purulia, Burdwan and North 24-Parganas and officials are hopeful that this will be a completely different kind of experience for them. They will be dancing on a theme music that has been prepared especially for the performance of the inaugural ceremony of the IPL in Kolkata.

"Since this is an event of international standard, best among all the artistes from each genre have been selected to perform in the event," the official said.

However, this is not the first time when folk artistes from Bengal are going to be a part of the IPL. Earlier, they had performed in a programme organised to felicitate members of KKR when it became the champion. But this time, the platform is much wider as they will not only be performing in front of the spectators present in the ground but also those who will watch it live from all over the globe.

The official added that two groups of folk artistes from Bengal will be going to Puri in May to perform at a folk festival. The event in Puri will be held from May 15 to 17 where chaau and raibeshi dance artistes from Bengal will be showcasing their talents. The teams of Jodhuram Kumar and Dukhoharon Pandit will be performing chaau and raibeshi respectively.
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