Mumbai: For years, Mumbai’s Ganesh festival has been organised by residents and neighbourhood committees. Now, the local mandals are increasingly drawing corporate giants like the Ambani and Adanis.
A year after the Ambani family sponsored the famous Lalbaug Ganesh mandal, the Adani Group has tied up with Chinchpokli’s 107-year-old Chintamani Ganesh Mandal, one of the city’s most prominent mandals, to sponsor its pandal.
“We have had many sponsors in the past, and corporates were a part of it. This time the only difference is that the Adani Group will be the only sponsor and will be completely responsible for all ads, banners and sponsorship,” Devendra Desai, vice-president of the Chintamani Ganesh Mandal, told ThePrint.
“Their relationship with us is at the moment only for the 11 days of the Ganesh festival. We don’t know what will happen in the future, whether there will be further tie-ups, but at least for this year, they have come in for 11 days.”
Desai said that though the mandal has different sponsors every year, this year it had turned down some old sponsors from previous years. “There won’t be any other corporate at our mandal but only Adani.”
He added that the company would display its ads on LED screens at the pandal and put up banners and posters across the area.
ThePrint reached out to Adani Group’s corporate communications, but it declined to comment.
The Ganesh festival is celebrated with pomp and fervour across Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai where lakhs of devotees come from all over for the 11-day festivities. The festival starts 14 September this year.
Lalbaug-Parel, Chinchpokli and Girgaon are among Mumbai’s oldest centres of the annual festival. Some of the city’s famous mandals have been celebrating for nearly a century with elaborate decorations and idols as tall as 20 feet.
Lalbaugcha Raja, Mumbaicha Raja and Chintamani are considered the most famous Ganesh mandals.
For years, the Ambani family had shared a strong bond with the festival and was associated with the Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganesh mandal through various activities like offerings, arranging machines for blood donation camps, and other CSR activities.
“We have been associated with several Ganesh mandals and Durga pandals across the country. We see this as an opportunity for sponsorship to connect with our consumers who visit them for darshan,” a Reliance Industries spokesperson told ThePrint.
Last year, industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s youngest son Anant joined the committee of the Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganesh mandal.
“Because of the presence of Mr. Ambani, we were able to take our celebration a notch higher. We could arrange for meals for devotees, could give them free ‘prashad (consecrated food)’,” said one of the members of the Lalbaug Sarvajanik Ganesh mandal.
“With the help of new technology, we were able to provide good security and monitor the arrangements better.”
Since lakhs of devotees visit these mandals every day, before the start of the festivities, banners and advertisements are displayed across the area. “Lalbaugcha Raja is the largest Ganesh mandal in the city and lakhs of devotees visit the pandals, which gives good visibility to our brands,” the Reliance Industries spokesperson told ThePrint.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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