Cos yet to take festive plunge, puja organisers stare at 25%-30% deficit
Times of India | 20 September 2024
Kolkata: With Mahalaya being merely 12 days away, hundreds of Durga Puja organisers in Kolkata are praying that corporates, which are still in two minds about investing in this year’s festival, will shortly loosen the purse strings. Several of them said even in the best-case scenario, several pujas, including some well-known ones, would be left with a 20%-30% deficit, the impact of which would be felt next year, when organisers might have to cut down on the budget by 10%-15%.
Kajal Sarkar, who has been helming the Bosepukur Sitala Mandir puja for three decades, said this year’s financial challenges were unprecedented. “Financial commitments are usually inked over a month before the festival. When the RG Kar incident happened, we were as shocked as everyone else. The street protests that followed were unprecedented. The mood was anything but festive,” said Sarkar, secretary of the puja and that of Forum for Durgotsav, an umbrella organisation representing all major Durga Puja organisers. “The situation on the ground has changed for the better since the meeting between junior doctors and the CM. But companies are still cautious and in a wait-and-watch mode.”
An official of an advertising agency that helps Mumbai and Bengaluru companies tie up with pujas committees said the month-long street protests had left corporate executives in those cities in a fix. “There is a dilemma over negative public reaction to their brand’s association with celebration. The fear is over adverse social media posts, rather than protests. We are trying to allay the fears,” the ad executive said.
Even if sponsorship and ad pie shrinks, the forum functionaries feel big-budget pujas, such as Sreebhumi Sporting, Chetla Agrani and Suruchi Sangha, patronised by ministers or celebrities, will bag a big chunk, leaving the medium- and small-budget pujas struggling for funds. Jayanta Banerjee of Chorbagan Sarbajanin, a relatively small-budget-yet-popular puja, says they are staring at a deficit of Rs 25-30 lakh. “Only after the ad space gets overcrowded at big pujas that they flow into the rest of the pandals. The likelihood of that happening this year appears remote,” he said.
Among the big pujas that aren’t sure about the ad scene is Ballygunge Durga Puja Samity or Maddox Square. The past nine years, a pan-Indian broadcasting network has been booking the entire ground beyond the pandal for cultural events and controls ad rights at the puja for a contracted fee. “We are yet to hear about their plan,” said puja secretary Ranajit Chakraborty.
Saswata Bose, secretary of the century-old Hatibagan Sarbajanin as well as that of the Forum, is confident corporates will take the plunge in the next four-five days. “In no other event in India can brands get as much exposure as they can during puja. Sure, there will be a 20% deficit but most big organisers can tide over the crisis with soft loans. It is the spending in Durga Puja 2025 that will be impacted,” said Bose.
“The concern may be about the way companies’ presence is viewed,” said Partho Ghosh, secretary of Sib Mandir and chairman of the Forum.