The net spend in Kolkata alone during the Durga puja festival goes upto a few thousand crores of Indian rupees. If you are getting surprised at this statement, lets analyse the statement in more details.
Pujo and consumerism: It is a tradition among Bengalis to gift each other new sets of cloths during the Durga Puja festival. Every person the rich or the poor buy new cloths for their families and relatives. People wear new cloths, shoes during the six days of pujas. This trade of cloths and accessories like ornaments, shoes, cosmetics etc will alone lead to more than INR thousand crore of trade. Buying new cloths is not the only fresh purchases Bengalis do during Durga Puja festival. Buying new television for home, or a two wheeler or a having a fresh coat of painting for one’s apartment or going for a holiday – people plan different kinds of spends during the Durga Pujas. Price of an air ticket to and from Kolkata to any destination shots up to more than twice the average price throughout the year. Train tickets from Kolkata to different destinations during months of September and October gets booked on the first day the reservation opens. Approximately 300000 mobile handsets gets sold in Kolkata during the Durga Puja festivals. There is a proportionate quantity increase in sales of any goods or gadgets that one can imagine during this festival. Roaming around the city and pandal hopping is one of the key activities of people in Kolkata during these six days. Not only people from Kolkata but also people from nearby places in Bengal visit Kolkata to have a look at the extraordinary display of pandals. With this comes eating out. Starting from mere eggrolls, jhalmuri, bhelpuri, softdrinks, icecreams to more elaborate lunch and dinners, the food business alone does few thousand INR crores of trade in just six days of Durga puja festival in Kolkata. To add to this will be the purchase worth a few hundred INR crores of sweets on the eve of Bijoya when people gift each other sweets at the end of the puja festival.
Pujo and commercialism: Companies have identified Durga puja festival in Kolkata as a great opportunity to grab share of eyeballs of consumers. Due to steep buying behaviour of consumers, these companies generate high revenues from trade. Besides they also use this opportunity to make their brand popular among consumers. Firstly they offer huge sponsorships to the clubs who anyway spend millions every year on their pandal. Companies literally fight for space, stalls, gates, banners in key locations of famous Durga pujas. Sometimes the money offered to these clubs as sponsorships are so high that they even agree to prefix or suffix the brand name along with the club name. Brands like Times of India, Star Ananda, Pepsi have done this very successfully in the past. Secondly companies also organize multiple events through which they choose the best puja pandal of Kolkata, best artist of Kolkata, best ambience etc. This not only provides a platform for the puja pandals and artists to get recognized, but also helps the brand to get consumers’ attention. One brand which has done this really well is Asian Paints. Asian Paints has an important role in raising the standards of Durga Pujas in Kolkata. They started Asian Paints Sharad Samman in 1985 and have continued the tradition of identifying the best puja pandals of Kolkata every year. Asian Paints also involves celebrity jury for choosing the best puja pandals of Kolkata and continuously updates the people of Kolkata on shortlisted pujos through newspaper and television announcements. There are many similar Puja awards now in Kolkata like True Spirit Puja Awards, Pujo Perfect etc which choose the best pandals in Kolkata. These awards have proven to be very motivating to the puja organizers and artists and have raised the artistic creations of Kolkata Durga Pujas year after year. Finally companies along with co-branding with media (television channels, radio channels, newspapers) make live shows and promotional programs in the puja mandap premises where visitors participate and win prizes. In this way, not only the media gains their popularity, but also the companies who have co-sponsored the events with them.
I think with this brief two pictures (from consumers’ angle as well as companies’ and brands’ angle), I could give you an idea on the Pujo economics of Kolkata.