The money and the economics of Durga Puja

THE BUSINESS OF FESTIVALS: Durga puja now seems to be an event more for advertisers than devotees.

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Kolkata: The pandals are bigger and fancier across Kolkata this year and giving competition to the Goddess in an effort to grab eyeballs are advertisements.

Big corporates are pumping in crores this festive season after all banners at key spots is the best way to get consumer attention.

Says Sponsor Rene Apparel's owner, Prasanta Chatterjee, "Primarily, we want to do a brand positioning of our products. For example in the Paliganj Cultural Association, there was a fight between Vodaphone and Times of India."

Organisers say the money from corporate sponsors is the major chunk for the pandals and the rest of it comes from membership and contributions.

Says Organiser, Ekdalia Puja, Gautam Mukherjee, "Previously, pujas used to depend on donations of local people, but now the major portion comes from sponsors — upto Rs 25 lakh sometimes."

And there's another way the sponsorship is coming — the local channels tie up with pandals for live telecast of the puja. In fact, the price can go upto 15 lakhs as it has for one of the most popular pandals..

Durga Puja now seems to be an event more for advertisers than devotees.

(With inputs from Priyanka Chatterjee in Kolkata)