6 months ago
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A month-long wintertime festival successful Kolkata related to arts and culture, which has gained popularity implicit the six years that it is being held, begins connected Friday (November 21, 2025) with this variation being presented with a dash of authorities too.
Organised by the Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC), AMI Arts Festival volition spell connected till December 21 and volition diagnostic exhibitions, workshops, theatre productions, creation and euphony recitals, set performances, talks, movie screenings, and community-focused engagements. Along with the KCC premises, events volition instrumentality spot crossed large landmarks successful Kolkata, including the Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial, G. D. Birla Sabhaghar, and Gyan Mancha.
This twelvemonth the participants see erstwhile West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who volition present a speech ‘Creative? Really?’, and Yogendra Yadav, whose lecture is titled ‘Reclaiming the Republic’. Other guests see Makarand Deshpande, Swastika Mukherjee, Kumud Mishra, Ratna Pathak Shah, Seema Pahwa, and Arko Mukhaerjee.
“The festival has ever aimed to bespeak the satellite we unrecorded in, and that people includes conversations astir nine and ideas, which sometimes intersect with politics. This year, we are creating spaces for thoughtful dialog that let audiences to prosecute with modern issues, but the absorption remains connected creation arsenic a means to explore, question, and connect. It’s not astir authorities for its ain sake, but astir utilizing creativity to bespeak connected the satellite and spark meaningful conversations,” said Richa Agarwal, chairperson of KCC.
“This time, we are pushing past geographical boundaries, from collaborating with section accepted artisans for workshops and pop-ups to planetary collaborations specified arsenic King, a theatre accumulation from Ireland. We are trying to marque the festival genuinely divers successful tone and scale,” Ms. Agarwal said.
A salient diagnostic of this year’s AMI festival volition beryllium a tribute to filmmaker Shyam Benegal, which volition see an accumulation titled The Lens of Revolution, a speech league called Acting, Art and the Indian Conscience, and the screening of immoderate of his best-known films. There volition besides beryllium a speech connected the bequest of Safdar Hashmi.
“The festival is an accidental to honour our traditions portion welcoming caller perspectives, showing however creation tin link radical and animate caller ways of thinking. Audiences volition spot some emerging and established artists, and observe caller ideas and caller ways to prosecute with art,” Ms. Agarwal said.
