From only one puja in 1914, the celebration has come a long way today, with over 250 organised Durga Pujas being held in the city, as people other than Bengalis also take part with elan. The celebration on a larger scale provides employment to Lucknow and Bengal artists.
LUCKNOW: Niloy Mitra, a famous sculptor and idol maker in Talkatora area of Lucknow is working at breakneck speed along with his eight workers from Kolkata, giving final touches to over 50-60 orders of idols. Navratri began on Sunday and Durga idols will be installed in Puja Pandals on Panchami (fifth day). Formal puja of the idols will begin on shashthi (sixth day).
Mitra’s work was started by his father decades back with only two orders. Today he has orders for most of the big pandals in the city for which he has to employ eight workers from Kolkata every year for over three months to meet the demand.
“We only started with two orders when I was very young, today the orders haves certainly shot up. It is all God’s grace. It definitely shows that Durga Puja is being celebrated in the city on a much bigger scale than before,” said Mitra, a graduate from Arts College, Lucknow University.
Like Niloy, his cousin Robin Mitra, 21, too has got about 50-60 orders, including those of idols as tall as 11 feet for the Nadarganj Puja and 9 feet tall for Model House Durga Puja. He too has employed 10 workers from Kolkata.
The Mitra duo’s basements are occupied by over hundreds of idols which are getting their final shapes as they are to be installed at durga pandals of the city within the next few days.
Like the Mitras, Sujeet Pal, another famous sculptor, now takes no more than 25 orders every year, after a prolific tradition of three generations of idol makers taking orders from puja committees in and around Lucknow.
The Pals work with a team of three sculptors who travel from Bahraich and some painters who come from Kolkata. They have created idols for Rabindra Palli and Bandhu Mahal this year, like the previous years, and even create idols for pujas in Lakhimpur Kheri and Barabanki.
With only one Puja in the city in 1914, started in Bengali Club, today the number has increased to over 250 registered big and small pandals in the city.
According to the registration of Durga Puja with Lucknow police in 2022, 121 pandals and 133 non-pandals were to be established throughout the city. A total of 54 Raamlilas and 55 Ravaan Dahans were also held.
“Earlier, Durga Puja meant visiting only a few pandals in the city. Now, pandals are everywhere,” said Dimple Dutta, secretary of Rabindra Palli Durga Puja Committee.
Tuhin Banjerjee, administrator of Trans-Gomti Durga Puja Committee in Aliganj said, “It has now scaled up, though we are still behind Kolkata.”
“We are also getting demands from various small pujas being organised in apartments unlike earlier days,” said Abhijeet Biswas, another idol maker and a sculptor.
“Many people from the Bengali community have recently migrated to the city for jobs and other purposes. This has given rise to many small scale pujas being organised by societies and apartment dwellers,” said Tapan Mukherjee, president, Sunrise Durga Puja Committee, in Sunrise Apartment on Kanpur Road
