Faith and fest: the many colours of Maha Ashtami

Durga Puja festivities have been known for vibrant cultural performances, with popular film and television celebrities performing late into the night.

Puja revelry toned down as security proves dampener

Durga Puja festivities have been known for vibrant cultural performances, with popular film and television celebrities performing late into the night. This year however, with increased security concerns, a subtle change has been brought about in the celebrity quotient of the cultural programmes being held at pandals across the city.

In Dwarka, the local Sarvajanik Dwarka Cultural Committee plans to rely on known performers from television and Kolkata for entertainment. Sumedha Chakraborty, secretary, said, “We have called performers from Kolkata and contestants from a television music show to perform.”

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In Chittaranjan Park, the hub of Durga Puja festivities in Delhi, there has been a marked toning down of celebrity performances this year. Pradip Majumdar, secretary of the Kali Mandir Puja Samiti, C R Park said, “We have invited some Bengali singers to perform popular Bengali numbers of renowned singer Hemant Kumar.” Among the invited are Rejwana Banya from Bangladesh, Sarbani Sen and Siddhartha Banerjee from Kolkata. Also on the list is Mihir Basu, a folk singer from Kolkata.

The Durga Puja Samiti at B Block has decided to go one step further by not calling any prominent celebrities this year because of security reasons. “We have called performers from Kolkata; calling prominent celebrities would draw bigger crowds that might be difficult to control,” said Asim Banerjee, president, B Block Pandal.

Meanwhile, the situation at the famous C R Park Mela Ground is more or less the same, with organisers inviting local singers for the cultural programme.

“Performers from Bombay draw huge crowds that often cause inconvenience to those who go pandal-hopping at night,” said Narayan Dey, an organiser of the Mela Ground puja.