prayagraj strolling in the festive ground of the nczcc north central zone culture center one of the visitor gopal srivastava was greeted with krur singh a familiar character of a popular tv serial chandrakanta and this brief encounter was enough to make gopal nostalgic of his childhood daysnot only this popular character from tv serial but characters of charlie ginny joker etc could be spotted roaming in the ongoing shilp mela on the grounds of nczcc these are the artists of the folk art called bahurupiya this years team of bahurupiya is led by shamshad khan son of a national level artist shubarati khan from bandikul village of dausa district of rajasthan who died in 2019the other members of the team include babloo jitendra and zakirprior to the pandemic the entire family of shubarati khan were a regular entertainer of the shilp mela this family who had performed in many national and international festivals used to replicate characters like hanuman ravan laxman saint narad or krishna while attracting huge crowds at nczccthe art is pursued in our family from several generations as our ancestors were darbari bahurupiya of raja man singhs court but today things are different as the government does not provide the needed patronage or look after our welfare because of which this art form is dying a slow death said shamshad one of the six brothers we have to arrange for our makeup which we dont purchase from the market and the dresses etc against which the remuneration is far less because of which we are not putting our kids in this profession added zakirthe sad artist further said there is no help from the government as my father died from kidney failure and despite him being an international level artist failed to get any monetary help from the government who will help us when we get old or suffer with some ailmentshamshad further informed that now almost all the artists of this art form have opened shops in their native places and somehow manage bread and butterit is disheartening to see that this folk art is dying but unless the government helps us we dont have any other option but to switch over to business said shamshad