KYA CORONA NE BOLLYWOOD MEIN GANESH UTSAV KI SHAAN KAM KAR DI ?

If there is one God who is most popular and worshipped like no other in the insecure world of films, it is Lord Ganesh, popularly known as Ganpati Bappa - Ali Peter John

Almost the entire industry waits to celebrate the festival of Ganeshotsav, they have their own ways of observing the festival, some of do it privately, but there are others who do it in a very grand way and have been doing it for years.

Jeetendra and his family were the first to make the festival a part of many other festivals they celebrated.

They first started in Ramchandra Chawl in Girgaum where Jeetendra was born as Ravi Kapoor.

Jeetendra always believes that it is Ganpati who is responsible for all that has happened in his life.

He still observes the festival and visits the chawl in Girgaum every year to perform a “pooja”.

He has several small statues of Ganpati Bappa in all corners of his palatial house, “Krishna” in Juhu and even the entrance to Balaji Telefilms his company has a very special statues of God he and his entire family are great devotees of.

He even bring the idol of Ganpati for one and half day and immerses it in the sea in Juhu.

The one star who is known for being an angry man and a rebel in real life who celebrates Ganeshotsav in its entirety is Nana Patekar.

He has been installing the idol of Ganpati in his old house opposite the road in between Mahim and Matunga.

He doesn’t take on any kind of work during the ten days during which he spends all the day and even the night in worshipping Ganpati.

He wears just a simple white “paijama” and a “kurta” and stands near the idol taking care of it and not letting even a petal from a rose from a garland to fall.

He keeps a constant watch to see that his god is not disturbed in anyway. He keeps fanning the Lord all through the day.

His “mandap” is open to one and all and to people of all castes and communities. He does not make any difference in treating his guests, some of them very big celebrities from different walks of life, specially films and politics.

He has his family to look after all the guests while he is constantly in touch with his Lord.

His festival make him take a vow not to work, not to eat non-veg, not to drink and in his own words, “not even think about sex.”

He leads the procession for the final immersion on the tenth day and conducts the final rituals on the beach at Shivaji Park. No temptation disturb him during the ten days he is with Ganpati.

The other two film celebrities who observe the festival with all the rituals which have been practiced for years are Nitin Mukesh and his Neil Nitin Mukesh who have been observing it without any break ever since Mukesh , the great singer died.

And the other big celebration is at the house of Sanjay Leela Bhansali , where his mother , the eighty-two old Leela Bhansali have their own ways to make their celebrations memorable .

The one family which has never failed in observing in grand festival is the Mangeshkar family.

The idol is honored during all the ten days with the Mangeshkar sisters whose songs in honor of Ganpati are sung all over sing the praises of the Lord themselves, besides performing the “aarti” twice, once in the morning and then in the evening .

There was a time the Ganeshotsav was celebrated in a grand way in three major studios, R.K Studios owned by Raj Kapoor, Raj Kamal Studios owned by Dr.V.Shantaram and Natraj Studios jointly owned by filmmakers like Ramanand Sagar, Shakti Samanta, Atma Ram, younger brother of Guru Dutt, Pramod Chakravarty and F.C.Mehra, the man who had come all the way from Afghanistan to make it in films.

The owners of these studios not only helped the workers of their studios to celebrate the festival, but also took very active part.

All those studios have now stopped the celebration. Natraj has even closed down and with the passing away of Shantaram and Raj Kapoor all festivals once celebrated in their studios have been called off.

There are many other stars who celebrate the festival in the privacy of their homes and end the festival within the first three days.

But what ever happens, Ganeshotsav is one festival which is celebrated in a much better way than all the other festivals and it is the only festival which is “sarvajanik” (for one and all)…

The image of the Lord and especially the scene of the final immersion has been a very important part of the climax scenes of some films like “Humse Badhkar Kaun”, “Zakhmee”, “Dard Ka Rishta” (both these films with Sunil Dutt), Ram Gopal Varma’s first major hit, “Satya”, “Agneepath” (both with Amitabh Bachchan and the recently released sequel with Hrithik Roshan) and even the recently released “Raaz 3” in 3D.

Writers, directors, action directors and choreographers have always been busy planning out new ideas to suit the festival because they know that there will be a need for something new whenever the festival of Ganpati is depicted in films, especially Hindi and Marathi films Some of the most popular songs singing in honour of Ganpati and asking for help at the same time have been sung by Mithun Chakravarty, Sunil Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan and some even in the backdrop as the grim climax of a film is shot.

Like all believers, all those who have been observing this festival down the years continue to do it year after year because they also believe in the common belief that if they stop even for a year the wrath of Ganpati will fall on them.

Ganpati Bappa Morya is one sound which is going to resound all through the years to come because there is no other place where people need the help of god more than this industry.

DEVA KO SANGEET HAI PYARA

Ganeshutsav is incomplete without lots of music and dancing of the wildest kind.

The traditional aartis like ‘Jai Ganesh Jai Ganesh’ and ‘Jai Mangalmurti’ among others are a must and the most popular ones seem to be those sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

But of late there have been any number of music albums and CDs which come up almost every year in large numbers with all kinds of songs sung and composed by unknown singers and composers.

Surprisingly, most of the songs sung to please, praise and thank Lord Ganesh are based on popular songs from Hindi films, even some of the songs from item numbers.

The music during the festival reaches a crescendo during the final procession with bands playing the most boisterous and energetic songs for men, women and children who dance before the Lord.

The bands specialize in playing music for this celebration and according to a survey there are more than 2500 big bands which are hired by all the popular mandals and are paid a very heavy price for driving the devotees crazy in their bid to bid farewell to the Lord till he comes again next year.

And now with Corona everything has changed even with Ganeshutsav in Bollywood. RK Studios, Natraj Studios and even major parts of Raj Kamal studios have shut down, and so have many other smaller studios in Mumbai where the Festival was celebrated with pomp and splendour and there were great men who had the minds and the spirit to celebrate festivals with their employees, but now all that has changed so very drastically and where there were large studios, there are large factories and corporate houses and where there were men with minds and hearts, there are men and women who have forgotten humanity, religion and gods a long time ago and even if they remember God and pray to him, it is only to gain more than what they already have.

The atmosphere is so vicious that God himself will think several times before he visits this world again.

GANPATI BAPA MORYA