BOLLYWOOD'S DURGA CONNECTION

Filmmakers Sashadhar Mukherjee and Shakti Samanta brought Bengal's annual revelry to Mumbai's suburbs, and the tradition continues

- Roshmila Bhattacharya

In the early '70s, some prabashi (migrant) Bengalis who had settled in Mumbai's western suburbs, Khar, Bandra and Santacruz, decided to organise a Durga Puja.

Since Shakti Samanta was a big name, with a string of blockbusters like Kashmir Ki Kali, An Evening in Paris, Aradhana and Kati Patang, they reached out to him.

Subsequently, the Notunpalli Sarbojanin Durgotsav Committee was formed with businessman Arun Banerjee as the first president, Shakti Samanta as the chief advisor and several Bollywood personalities, including filmmakers Pramod Chakraborty, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee and Basu Bhattacharya, actor Manik Dutta and composers Salil Chowdhury and RD Burman pitching in to host the first puja in 1972 at the Raosaheb Patwardhan Udyan, opposite Bandra's National College. "It became an annual event and, over the years, came to be known as 'Shakti Samanta's Durga Puja' even though dad voluntarily never served as president of the committee," smiles the filmmaker's son, producer-director Ashim Samanta.

Shankar Maitra, nephew of the late actor Abhi Bhattacharya and the present general secretary, informs that in 53 years, there's never been a break in the celebrations. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the committee members got a small idol and had a symbolic puja following all the SOPs. "The biggest threat came after the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) turned Patwardhan Park into a public garden following which some neighbours moved court, objecting to us taking over the ground every year, for almost a fortnight, for a religious function. In 1987, we were allotted the open plot behind Balgandharva Rangmandir theatre which is one-fourth the size of the original venue, but the puja is celebrated with the same fanfare," he asserts.

Maitra adds that bhog is served by members of the 'Mukto Mela', started by Salil Chowdhry, to 2,000-3,000 devotees for five days, from Panchami