Anupama Hoskere

Anupama Hoskere is a puppeteer from the Indian state of Karnataka. A recipient of Senior Fellowship in Puppetry from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, she also received many awards and honors including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for puppetry, and Padma Shri in arts.

Biography Anupama was born on 20 December 1964, in Bengaluru, Karnataka. She began training in Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam dance at a very young age.

Anupama who graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree from B.M.S. College of Engineering in 1987, completed two post graduate degrees, M.E. in Communication Engineering and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from California State University, Long Beach, in 1993.

Anupama studied traditional Karnataka string puppetry from Guru M.R. Ranganatha Rao. When she came to study, Rao was initially skeptical about whether a middle-class mother who had studied abroad would be suitable for learning puppetry, but later, understanding her interest further, he agreed to teach her how to perform puppet shows and later how to carve wooden puppets. Later, in 2011,she and her husband conducted a puppet-making workshop in Prague with Miroslav Trejtnar to learn Czech marionette carving, jointing and stringing techniques.

Career In puppetry, Anupama have experience in all areas, including puppet making, character design, costume design, script writing for puppet plays, music and lyrics for puppet plays, lighting, and sound effects in puppet plays. She is the founder director of the Dhaatu Puppet Theatre in Bengaluru. Anupama is also the Festival Director of the Dhaatu International Puppet Festival, an annual festival held in Bengaluru, which started in the year 2009. She founded the Dhaatu Puppet Museum in Bengaluru, a puppet museum that houses a collection of unique puppets from various states in India and around the world.

Anupama also tries to innovate by breaking away from the traditional methods of puppetry. Having practiced Bharatanatyam for years, she has added strings to the legs of some puppets to make them dance. She is a visiting faculty of the National Institute of Design, Bengaluru and also TEDx speaker at many universities of India.

Awards and honors Anupama received Senior Fellowship in Puppetry from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, to revitalize traditional eachanoor puppetry. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Puppetry in 2018. In 2024, she received the Padma Shri in arts. She has also received many awards including the Vishalakshi Award from the Art of Living Foundation, and the Outstanding Woman Award from the Association of Kannada Kootas of America, San Francisco.

Works on her A documentary on her life and works has also been released.