Click to play videoMumbai: Lord Ganesha is overlooking a curious sight at a pandal in Sewri this year called Mumbshang - a combination of chawls and skyscrapers and a combination of Mumbai and Shanghai.
“You can't stop development. We want the common Mumbaikar to see what his Shanghai will look like. Social messages are an important part of the festival,” said Vijay Indulkar from Sewri Ganeshotsav Mandal.
Ganesh pandals like this one are big crowd-pullers. Each usually has a little story and a social message that could vary from infrastructure to farmer suicides and this year, to even Harry Potter.
At a pandal in Girgaon, the wildly popular Potter comes to India, and after meeting the Elephant God, takes to spirituality.
With pandals entering into various competitions to outdo each other in creativity, bigger is often considered better.
Another pandal, a replica of the Swaminarayan Temple in Delhi, was made at cost of a whopping Rs 17 lakh just to create the Plaster of Paris set. Does it sound over the top? You could say so.
But there’s no penny-pinching in Naigaon either. A huge set - a copy of the Marleshwar Cave Temple in the Konkan, took almost a month of work and cost about Rs 6 lakh.
“Entering into various competition is a way for us to develop our potential. We take full advantage of it,” said set designer Manojj Govekar.
And why not? The increasing number of sponsors each year makes the sets increasingly lavish and with even the low-cost paper sets reaching for the stars with a 21-footer priced at Rs 21,000, there's no coming down from these heights.
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