Anupama Hoskere

Anupama Hoskere is a puppeteer and the founder-director of the Dhaatu Puppet Theater in Bengaluru. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of art, from Karnataka ^[1].

Engineer turned puppeteer

She was born in Bengaluru on 20 December 1964 and learned Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam from early childhood, along with the stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata ^[2]. She studied engineering at BMS College of Engineering, graduating in 1987, and took a master’s degree at California State University, Long Beach, in 1993 ^[2]. She also trained in the traditional puppetry of Karnataka ^[2].

Dhaatu

With her husband, Vidyashankar Hoskere, she set up Dhaatu in 2004 to tell stories from the epics, from poets such as Bhasa and Kalidasa, and from the Panchatantra ^[2]. Drawing on the Natyashastra, she combines puppetry, dance and theatre into large productions ^[2]. Dhaatu has created more than 25 full-length shows and has performed at festivals in France, Belgium, Morocco, the USA and China ^[2].

She also runs the annual Dhaatu International Puppet Festival, which brings Indian puppeteers from cities and villages together with artists from abroad, and a puppetry school and museum in Bengaluru ^[2]. Since 1995 she has organised a Navaratri display in which more than ten thousand traditional dolls tell stories from the epics and Puranas ^[2].

Honours

She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for puppetry in 2018 and a senior fellowship in puppetry from the Ministry of Culture ^[2].