Our Mission & About Us

We optimise the use of various movies to make academic subject teaching more holistic.

We develop lesson plans with popular films,documentaries, Youtube videos,news and televsion programmes.

We encourage teachers and students to be more critical 'consumers' of the media.

We are a platform for sharing teaching experiences and expertise in the learning environment.


Chitrabani is one of the oldest media libraries in eastern India and has more than 1000 books and journals. Chitrabani's film archive has a collection of about a thousand films from all over the world – popular movies, art house films, educational films, documentaries and rare experimental films


We dedicate our work to the memory of Fr. Eugene Lafont (1837 to 1908)

Fr. Eugene Lafont arrived at Calcutta from Belgium on December 4, 1865. was a Prof. of Physics at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. Soon after, he was appointed to teach science at St. Xavier’s College, an institution that was merely 5 years old at that time. He installed a laboratory in this college, perhaps the first of its kind in modern India. He taught Jagadish Chandra Bose and inspired him to conduct hands on- research in science.
Fr. Lafont gave popular science lectures to demonstrate new inventions like the magic lantern, telephone, X Ray, phonograph and the camera
Fr. Lafont always brought new technology into the classroom.  He was one of the first in India to acquire a movie camera and use it for scientific experiments.


The formation of Bichitra Pathshala was motivated by the first Tools in Schools workshop held at the Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Kolkata on August 19, 20 & 21, 2010. This workshop was a part of the Filmi Chashma activity and was supported by the Children’s Film Society of India.