Navratri Inc

Nine days of a festival and as advertisers now see it, nine days of perfect brand placements. Navratri celebrations are growing bigger each year with not just higher crowd turnouts but also advertisers willing to spend lakhs. And as organisers themselves admit, “Navratri has become an industry”.

It’s a festival that spreads across communities, for people from various backgrounds gather at grounds where the dandiya events are organised.

“Dandiya is not just for Gujaratis anymore. People from various age groups and communities get together to play. And in spite of having so many venues in the city, each venue is filled with people,” says Minal Vakharia, organiser of the KJR Garden dandiya event at Secunderabad.

Meher Aria, event coordinator for annual dandiya events at Secunderabad Club agrees that it has become “absolutely” commercial.

“Earlier, even at Secunderabad Club, it used to be a simple affair with a local band performing at the event.

“But eight years ago, the committee decided to make it bigger and better. So with each passing year, the event has grown in scale. Members can even bring guests. In fact, for this year’s celebration even though the pass for a guest was Rs 900, we had a flurry of guests. Brands are more than willing to come on board because of the cosmo crowd that comes for these events,” she says.

“In fact, I have noticed that automotive giants take part in these events as this is their target audience and the peak time when people buy new cars. Dandiya being celebrated in a huge area, they get to display their cars and bikes as well. Same goes for jewellery brands too,” she says.

Meher remembers when, five years ago, she had managed to get the most famous singer for dandiya events, Falguni Pathak, to town. “I had to book her a year in advance,” she says.

And the organising too takes a toll. “Organising a one-day festival is fine but organising a nine-day event is a completely different ball game. We start planning three months before the festival, practice sessions are organised for people to learn dandiya etc. Navratri has become an industry now where even private bodies are organising events,” says Minal, whose event is a part of the Telangana Gujarati Samaj.

The budget for each event is a minimum of Rs 60 lakh with places like Imperial Gardens having a budget as high as '90 lakh. But sponsors for these events do not mind shelling out high amounts, as it eventually gives them 100 per cent visibility.

“Most events are for one day but this is a festival which goes on for nine days. So for nine days, my brand name is seen on the tickets, the posters, print ads and more…there are at least 7,000 people turning up at the event each day. In fact, on Saturday there were 12,000 people at Imperial Gardens, so it gives my brand so much visibility,” says Dinesh Patel from Stellar, who is one of the main sponsors and organisers for the dandiya events at Imperial Garden.

Then there are those who say it’s “a self-advertising and self-establishing event”. The Namdhari Gaurav Navratri Utsav has been taking place for 15 years and the CMD of Namdhari events and promotions, Surat Singh Malhotra, says, “We started off in 2000 as a one-day event that was part of the Hyderabad Shopping Festival. Today it is one of the best known events in the city. We were a brand back then supported by friends and it’s the same even now. It’s not the money that we are looking at because we anyway donate whatever we make during these days.”