The Covid effect on the economy has hit pandal budgets, reducing the number of pujas that can support elaborate themes.
Faced with the situation, several senior theme-makers have cut down on projects, passing on work to junior artistes or playing an advisory role for their own students, in whose names the pandals are being publicised.
At the AK Block puja in Salt Lake, Parimal Pal has crafted the idol but has asked his student Susmita Rudra to make the pandal. “The budget this year for the pandal is Rs 6 lakh and Rs 2 lakh for the idol while the overall budget is Rs 15 lakh. Till 2019, it was Rs 35-40 lakh, with Rs 25 lakh set aside for the pandal. Parimal did not want to lend his name to such a small-budget puja though he is guiding everything,” said secretary Aritra Sen.
“We think up a concept six months before puja but this year, things were so uncertain that no planning could be done. If my name has to be used, the work has to be of a certain level. This budget did not support that. A student is on the job though I am backing her,” he said.
Star theme-maker Susanta Pal has given up two of the three pujas he did in 2020 and is focusing only on Tala Prattoy. “Last year, many of us worked without remuneration out of an urge to keep the show going. But we are used to working on pujas with budgets of Rs 50-60 lakh or more. If that suddenly plummets to Rs 6 lakh, it will mean a setback of 10 years in my career. In any case, I was unwilling to spend so much time on the ground amid a pandemic,” said Susanta. Tala, he said, had Rs 50-60 lakh budget to let him give shape to his theme of Nirbadh (unrestricted). “The idea fits a Covid-year puja. I had to make do with 40 labourers for 20 days. In 2019, I had 250 men working over four months.”
Bhabatosh Sutar’s idol seen from a distance at the Naktala Udayan Sangha pandal by Pradip Das
At Vivekananda Park Athletic Club in Haridevpur, Susanta suggested names of a few junior artistes to step in for him, who he thought could deliver within the limited budget. The club chose Partha Das.
Naktala Udayan Sangha, one of the city’s biggest pujas, too is not being helmed by an A-lister. “They were undecided for long about the scale of the puja. By the time, they called I had signed up with Jodhpur Park 95 Pally. With barely 25 days left. I requested Pradip Das, a prominent member of our artist commune Chander Haat, to take up the job,” said Bhabatosh Sutar, who is only sculpting the idol at the pandal highlighting the plight of refugees.
Sutar was in charge of both idol and pandal at the puja in 2019 and 2020. “Last year, their budget got halved and I chose bamboo as a cost-effective medium. This year, it is slightly less than even that.”
Some senior artists have another apprehension. “Last year, I had sacrificed my own remuneration to deliver themes at Rs 10 lakh each at Kashi Bose Lane and Dum Dum Park. The former got 42 prizes. If I agree to work on such low budget again, the organisers might be unwilling to bring the budget back to pre-Covid levels. A cost-effective theme can click once or twice, not every time,” said Parimal.
All of them said they were happy to let the next generation step up. “It is part of our responsibility to nurture the supply line of theme-makers for the city’s sake,” they said.