The present work describes synthesis of water soluble l-cysteine-functionalized CdTe quantum dots (QDs) with size tunable emission at different time intervals for chitosan based film. The characterization of the synthesized CdTe QDs-chitosan film was made by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The optical property of CdTe QDs-chitosan film was determined by UV-vis and photo-luminescence (PL) spectroscopy whereas their antibacterial activity was screened for Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) as well as Gram negative (Pseudomonas aurigionasa and Escherichia coli) bacteria by disc diffusion method. The loss of tunable light emission effect of QDs as well as the positive result of antibacterial study reveals that the synthesized QDs based chitosan film is a promising candidate for wide range of biomedical applications.