The day of Rathyatra unveiled one of the big curiosities of the city’s Durga puja calendar — the theme of the Sreebhumi puja this year. On the occasion of khuti puja held next to the club premises on Sunday, it was announced that the theme for the pandal this year will be the Venkataswara temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
President of Sreebhumi Sporting Club Sujit Bose, also the state fire and emergency services minister, revealed a model of the pandal after completing the khuti puja and planting the ceremonial pole in front of the idols of Lord Jagannath, Subhadra and Balaram.
“We have chosen Jagannath temple of Puri before for our pandal. We have also done foreign monuments like Burj Khalifa of Dubai and a church (St Peter’s Basilica) of Italy. Whatever we choose, we create an authentic likeness of. This time you will get a view of Tirupati temple at our puja,” Bose said.
The height will be about 100ft, Romio Hazra, who has been in charge of the Sreebhumi pandal for several years now, told The Telegraph Salt Lake. The temple façade will be the main gate. Motifs of the presiding deity, Balaji, will be used in the decor. “It will be milk white outside and golden inside,” he said.
Babu Pal, the renowned illumination specialist from Chandernagore, will be in charge of much of the lighting. But there will be no laser light show like at the Burj Khalifa pandal of 2021, which had caused visibility problems for pilots and had to be stopped.
At the khuti puja, there were several guests from both political and the cultural fields. A touching moment was the arrival of Rai, the daughter of filmmaker Gautam Halder. The HB Block filmmaker passed away in November 2023. “Gautamda had directed Vidya Balan in her debut film. Last year, she came to our puja with Gautamda,” Bose recalled. Actor Ankush Hazra came with his Mirza costar Oindrila Sen, prompting Bose to request them for a dialogue from the film.
Singer Pousali Banerjee was also present, along with artist Subrata Gangopadhyay and elocutionist Satinath Mukherjee.