"Ashokenagar Nattyamukh" started their journey on 2nd September, 1999.The group consisted students. Invited directors directed the dramas up to the year of 2004. After that the group was spear headed by Angshuman Sarkar. It was he who directed the dramas    from there on.‘Bole’ (2002-03),‘Beulo’ (2003-04), ‘Avisar’ (2004-05) and ‘Ek Hotochhara Yuddho Chai’ (2005-06).  Another young chap  Avi Chakraborty was the playwright of those dramas.

All the dramas were mainly acted at the competition and some prestigious stage. The all dramas also received a few prizes. In the year 2006 the director’s chair was filled by another young director Avi Chakraborty. Avi took some quick decisions after taking up the director’s chair. He appointed professionals in the field of lighting, music, make-up and stage design. Hence started theatre worksop in the presence of famous theatre personality. Corporate sponsorships were included in two productions. Famous two daily Newspapers become the media partners of last three productions. Received some co-operateion since the playwright of Avi’s first drama was Bratya Basu. The first and foremost thing was that we were able to create a complete different language in the field of theatre with the help of Angshuman and Avi. Whether it was self identify or form, a new character was created. We want completely different form the then prevalent nature of the dramas like middle class society dependent and looked the life in a bit larger way. Hence started experimentation. Sometimes it included space while sometimes character. While sometimes content. It also included form. The time that was incorporated in the drama while considering a particular person the anti-establishment that was incorporated had taught us the art of thinking. We also tried to understand but in a different fashion. The outer manifesto comprised of a popular element such as the reality show in ‘Bole’ and the conflict between science and superstition in ‘Beulo’. The people of South Bengal have always been fascinated by snakes. ‘Avishar’ contains the great poet Rabindra Nath Tagore. Bratya Basu’s Operation 2010 was based on football. Manik Bandhopadhyay consisted of Singur Nandigram of 1970, a story of farmer who lost everything. Then we have presented Kagojer Nouko, Bisannojon & Muktodhara. To understand and to learn theatre completely we started a complete theatre journal named Nattyamuk Nattyapatra from the year 2000 A.D. Celebrities like Sova Sen, Late Satya Bandhopadhyay, Late Badal Sarkar, Late Navendu Sen, Bratya Basu, Kousik Sen, Abul Bashar, Sathi Lekha Sengupta  have voiced their opinion in this journal. This journal has fetcehed us an award in the memory of Dharani Ghosh in the year 2004.We have organized theatre workshops many a times, We are very proud that we have received help from grate teachers like Saoli Mitra, Bratya Basu, Probir Guha, Subhasish Gangopadhyay, Sudip Shanyal, Manis Mitra, Debasankar Halder and Ronen Chakraborty.We are a small drop of water in the huge ocean of theatre. We organized and coordinate various workshop at lot of institution like Gour College, Kaliachak College, Rayganj Agrosen College, Gurudas College, Nahata Jnms College and many others.We have given honours to various personalities like Late Novendu Sen, Shamal Dutta, Raja Guha, Udaynil Battyacharjee, Rangan Dutta Gupta, Chandan Sen, Ranjan Gangopadhyay, Kaushik Chattyapadhyay, Debasish Sarkar, Samir Kundu, Nilima Chakraborty, Nripendra Saha, Gautam Roy Choudhury, Goutam Mukhopadhyay, Kamal Saha, Swapan Ray, Kamal Sen, Dipak Nag, Debobrato Das, Ashish Das, Ratri Chattyopdhyay, Shiv Sharma, Bablu Dasgupta, Tapas Das, Sadhana Mukhopadhyay, Koushik Sen, Bibhas Chakraborty, Rudraprasad Sengupta, Manoj Mitra, Shyamal Sarkar, Probir Guha, Pulak Bandhopadhyay, Saurav Gupta, Ridhhi Sen, Soumik-Piyali, Sudip Sannyal, Satya Bhaduri, Saoli Mitra, Bratya Basu, Debesh Chattopadhaya, Bhumisuta Das and Bratyajan Nattyapatra. We also organize and design lot of theatre festival in our locality like Sanjh Bala, Sishir Kumar Paul Smriti Nattyatsav, Swarnali Kanjilal Smriti Nattyatsav and Khola Haoa.

AviChakraborty was born on 24th December 1980 in the refugee inhabited place called Ashokenagar in 24 Parganas (N). He lost his father quite early in his life. There was no inclination towards what is known as culture in his home. A graduate from Calcutta University in pure science at 2002.Avi was attracted towards theatre after he passed higher secondary. He thus got involved in theatre.

Having formed his own theatre group to practice theatre,at the initial stages he was busy with the organization of his group. In 1999 he started AshokenagarNatyamukh and at the same time started the theatre journal NattyamukhNatyapatra. Avi started to reach many talented people in the world of theatre.Under the guise of taking interviewshe tried to understand Bengali theatre. A different environment of theatre came in his group the centre of which was Nabhendu Sen.

Avi started his career as theatre director in 2005 with BratyaBasu’s ‘Operation 2010’. Avi and his group increased their knowledge of theatre in the presence of BratyaBasu. BartyaBasu ignited in him the dream of professional and meaningful theatre. Dealing with the subject of Indian football this play created a new sensation among the spectators and critics. And in his very first play Avi gave attention to selecting actors according to the characters. He did not, however, keep himself confined to theatre practice within his own group. The next year, 2006, having been invited by the group Protikriti, Avi brought to stage a poem of ManikBandopadhyay on his birth centenary. Through this poem Avi brought on stage ‘DibaratrirGadyo’ where he touched issues like land struggle, land measurement, rape of a farmer’s wife, and farmer suicide. ButSingur and Nandigram were not yet famous places. The play had its premier show on 2nd September 2006.

After that issues from the Naxalite Movement to the Maoist Movement in West Bengal came into one of Avi’s plays. The voice of a third space of politics came into the layers of this play. Adapted from a work by Abul Bashar this play is known as ‘KagojerNouko’.

In 2009 he did Abinindranath’s ‘Shiladityo’ dramatized by Sourav Gupta. It was an open air production.

Having dealt directly with politics Avi seemed to be trying to understand his time under the garb of mythology. Following this his biggest work was Rabindranath’s ‘Muktodhara’ in 2011. With his thirty youth actors and actresses, and with the editing of SubhashisGangopadhyay, he launched the project on 11h May in 2011. Again he returned to Rabindranath,now not a play directly but a play from a story: ‘Konya Tor’. After this in 2014 Aviagain returned to political theatre directly. He made the play ‘Nemesis’ from contemporary writer RabisankarBal’s story ‘ToimurerShashonerPorobortiOdhyay’. For the first time he brought in Rock music into Bengali theatre. Breaking a conventional myth surrounding theatre Rupam Islam and his band Fossils created a new musical language in this play.Avi wants to break the conventional myth about dialogue, story and acting to create a different theatre language. Avi is deeply devoted insearching a communication language in contemporary theatre.

Avi has always protected himself and his team from the type of theatre that is seen at district level theatre competitions. One of his major inspirations in this is NavenduSen and PrabirGuha’s theatre.

Besides theatre creation Avi is also involved in a major way in editing a theatre journal and writing. ‘NatyamukhNatyapatra’ has published 23 issues so far. Now Avi and his editorial team are busy with the documentation of 100 plays from the districts with the cooperation of SangeetNatakAkademi.

Avi has been awarded as journal editor by AshokenagarAnweshaNatyaSamman – 2000, DrishtiNatyaSamman – 2002, DharaniGhoshSmritiPuroshkar – 2004 and NatadhaNatyaSamman – 2012. Besides, as a director Avi has received awards like Big Bangla Rising Star Award (2011), ProtikritiNatyaSamman (2011), UdichiNatyaSamman (2012) and CharjapadCharukalaSamman (2013). Avi has published two of his plays ‘DibaratrirGadya’ (2007) and ‘Bishchaya’ (2011) in book form. Avi’s play ‘Anyajanma’ has been published in GobardangaNaksa’s Collection on Rabindranath.

Avi has been involved in research for five years to figure out how theatre can be involved into everyday teaching and learning. He has reached many schools and colleges with his process. He framed a ‘media course’ that ran at Gour University for one year. One of the leading media houses in Bengal and India, ABP Group’s ‘The Telegraph’,honoured him with an award in 2013 in recognition of this work. Avi’s book ‘Abhimukh’ related to this will be launched in the Kolkata Book Fair next year.He left his job in an insurance company in 2011 and is now a full-time theatre worker and is a member of PashchimBangaNatyaAkademi.

Avi dreams of theatre’s own space and own language.