Mysore sees red over models on Dasara hoardings

Efforts to promote Mysore Dasara celebrations by adding some panache by roping in models have backfired with vociferous opposition to the move.

Ever since the promotion of the Dasara celebrations began, sponsored hoardings with models, including children, were being erected. There was then a hullabaloo from the traditional Mysoreans.

There were 20 hoardings put up in Mysore and about eight in Bangalore with models in non-traditional attires.

Now, on orders from the district administration, 15 of these have been replaced in Mysore and the remaining will be replaced by tomorrow, according to officials in DC office.

Responding to the public outcry, the government stopped erecting these hoardings and some 100 new hoardings with traditional and historic images have since been designed to meet the demand.

However, it will take about two days to change the images on the Dasara website.

Dasara has been synonymous with elephants, Goddess Chamundeswari, and the Vijaya Dasami procession. These have been serving as brand ambassadors to promote Dasara celebrations all over the years.

Right from the year the state government began to organise the celebrations as ‘Nada Habba’ or the state festival, when Devaraj Urs was the chief minister, either the painted elephants, the Chamundi temple, the gorgeous palace or the colourful procession with the caparisoned elephant served as brand ambassadors to attract tourists to Mysore during the 10 days of the celebrations.

These traditional and historic images were portrayed on all the publicity material, posters and hoardings.

However, the authorities concerned with arrangements of the Dasara this year decided to give a go-by to this tradition. Instead, they have opted to the images of models on the publicity hoardings.

Even the Dasara website has the models. Neither the palace nor the historic howdah is to be seen. The models hog the limelight, relegating the painted elephant to the background.

In fact, Dasara has been seen as the best opportunity to promote ‘brand Mysore’ for the last several decades.

Right from the days, when the then Mysore state began to produce the silk sarees, sandalwood craft items, sandal soap, agarbathies or several other items, the rulers thought it wise to promote them to build a ‘brand Mysore’ and attract visitors to these goods and to their royal city during the Dasara.

Unfortunately, most of these goods have lost their prominence and the market over the years because of various reasons, including the indifference towards these traditional products of Mysore.

In one more similar attempt, the authorities seem to prefer models to promote Dasara than the hoary tradition.

They have outsourced a Bangalore-based agency for the publicity campaign, which used pictures of models, giving scope for another attack on the way the 2008 Dasara is being organised by the authorities concerned.

Initially, it was an announcement by district in-charge minister Shoba Karandlaje to change the traditional order of the Dasara procession by making the howdah elephant lead the Vijaya Dasami march which came in for a strong attack. The second culture shock delivered now is the promotion of Dasara by models.

The use of images of models in the publicity campaign has come in for criticism.

It has been seen as an affront on the hoary tradition and culture of Mysore and its age-old Dasara festival.

According to an old timer associated with the publicity committee of the Dasara in the earlier years, the use of models has sullied the sanctity of the religious celebrations.

“This is what happens when people who do not know the sanctity of the Dasara, which is being celebrated from the days of the Vijayanagar kings in a grand and colourful manner, are associated with its arrangements,” he remarked.