Website: http://www.namaste-france.com/

Namaste France has been launched in France, highlighting Indian culture in a festival across France from 2010-2011.  This follows the French cultural festival in India 'Bonjour India' which was held in 2009/2010.

There will be film festivals including Rithwik Ghatak in Marseille in July, Satyajit Ray at the Musée Guimet and Bollywood next year. As well as Rajastani puppet shows, there will be traditional music concerts (such as the santoor with the Soporis), celebrations of Indian cuisine, yoga, ayurveda (a sort of way-of-life science based on Vedic culture), dance and an exhibition of the literary master Rabindranath Tagore and his paintings.

The Namaste France jamboree officially kicked off with a show at the auditorium of the Quai Branly museum in Paris where the Other Masters of India: the art of the Adivasis exhibition began last month.

Given the success of the exhibition, it was no surprise that the launch event stayed with the anthropological theme with a series of “tribal” dances researched and performed by the Darpana Company, led by Mallika Sarabhai of Draupadi fame from Peter Brook’s Mahabharata, which toured from 1985-1989.

“It’s very important for us to represent the ‘autochthonous’ peoples of India,” she remarks.

More information: http://www.english.rfi.fr/asia-pacific/20100424-cultural-exchange-between-france-and-india