Durga Puja 2025: Corporate sponsorship up across West Bengal's 45K pandals

Corporate sponsorship for Durga Puja is buoyant in Kolkata with brands returning strongly, though retail sales show mixed trends across malls, shopping hubs and markets

The revellers are out on the streets, traffic has slowed to a crawl, and after hurried repairs, pandals are glowing with lights — Kolkata is back to celebrating Durga Puja, shrugging off the deluge of rain.

 

A torrential downpour struck Kolkata early Tuesday, as a 5-7-kilometre cloud column released 252 millimetres of rain over seven hours, just days before the city’s biggest festival. With several pandals flooded or partially damaged, organisers raced against time to restore them.

 

Abhijit Mazumder of the Singhi Park Durga Puja Committee said the lower panel of the pandal was damaged. “The decorators and artists had to be brought in for urgent repairs.”

 

Much of the pandal structure at Samaj Sebi Sangha is made of iron. But the labourers who were working there had to be moved, said Arijit Maitra, general secretary of the committee. Yet, as the water mostly receded by Wednesday evening, Kolkata swung back into carnival mode.

 

Advertisers rely on this indomitable spirit, and this year, they’ve certainly loosened the purse strings. According to some organisers, corporate sponsorship — the backbone of festival funding — is running at pre-pandemic strength, even as personal care in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment and consumer durables remain on low power. Leading the charge are food and beverage, automotive, cable pipe, thermo-mechanically treated bar, and other sectors.

 

Last year, Durga Puja was held under the shadow of protests over the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College & Hospital. That had taken a toll on corporate sponsorship, with brands stepping back from festival spending. 

 

According to Samaj Sebi’s Maitra, last year’s Puja was a horror for organisers, with most committees facing deficits. “This year, however, things are very different — corporate participation is back to pre-pandemic levels, even though some FMCG companies finalised their participation at the last minute.”

 

“It’s a sell-out this year, which also marks our landmark 75th anniversary,” said Amitava Sinha, president of the Ballygunge Cultural Association. “We now have to turn down requests for gates, stalls and banners,” he added.

 

Big-ticket pujas thrive on corporate sponsorship — gates, stalls, and banners are the main money spinners.

 

Mazumder of Singhi Park said that a major FMCG company and a consumer durables brand backed out this year. “But overall, the market is strong, and sponsorship is higher than last year. The number of advertisers has increased this year, even though individual budgets of some companies may be smaller.”

 

Saswata Basu, general secretary of the Forum for Durgotsab, echoed these views and said sponsorship was buoyant this year compared to last. The umbrella body represents around 450 Pujas in Kolkata. However, an organiser noted that the usual profligacy of FMCG companies, as seen in a normal year, was missing, and some had slashed budgets.

 

Durga Puja is a major driver for the economy in West Bengal — home to nearly 45,000 Pujas; Kolkata alone has about 2,740 Pujas. A research study commissioned by the British Council at the behest of the West Bengal tourism department had pegged the total economic worth of the creative industries around the festival at ₹32,377 crore (figures estimated from the 2019 Durga Puja).

 

That figure is said to have grown after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization intangible heritage tag in 2021.

 

Retail accounts for the lion’s share of festival spending. But it’s a mixed bag this year for the sector, perhaps reflecting changing consumer trends: malls are seeing growth in sales, while traditional shopping hubs are reporting slower sales.

 

At Acropolis Mall, shopping fervour picked up last weekend with robust participation from customers, said Subhadip Basu, corporate general manager — retail and hospitality, Merlin Group. “Footfall has grown by 10 per cent over 2023 and 5 per cent over last year, while retailers reported double-digit growth in sales.”

 

Another major mall said that compared to last year, growth in sales would be 10–12 per cent higher. But from 2023 levels, it would be about 2–3 per cent.

 

New Market, Kolkata’s historic shopping arcade formerly known as Sir Stuart Hogg Market, presents a contrasting picture. Though buzzing with crowds, hawkers outside the area and shopkeepers inside the red-brick Victorian Gothic-style marketplace are facing a slower season. The missing Bangladeshi customers are adding to its woes.

 

Ashok Kumar Gupta, president of the SS Hogg Market Traders’ Association, said sales were down by 40 per cent from last year.

 

The scene is similar at Gariahat, a popular shopping hub in South Kolkata. Shop owners here say that the season is marked by low budgets and low footfall. They believe some customers may have shifted to online shopping.

 

However, Sushil Poddar, president of the Confederation of West Bengal Trade Associations, expects the goods and services tax rate cut to give sales a marked boost. “Sales should be up because there is tangible excitement among people this year.”

 

Food takes centre stage during Durga Puja celebrations, and the sector is gearing up to ride the festival indulgence wave. Despite protests last year, restaurants did brisk business during the festival. Even if a certain percentage of people were aggrieved and didn’t participate, a large majority still joined the Puja celebrations, observed Aninda Palit, founder and director of Savourites Hospitality, which operates brands such as 6 Ballygunge Place, The Wall, and Ramanee — The Soul of Dakshin. “We are keeping our fingers crossed that the rains don’t dampen the Puja celebrations this time,” he added.

 

Anjan Chatterjee, chairman and managing director of Speciality Restaurants, expects this year to be as good as the last. “There is no stopping the festival-loving spirit of Bengalis — and when it comes to Durga Puja, there is simply no festival of this scale anywhere else in the world.” Speciality’s brands include Oh! Calcutta, Mainland China, Sigree, and Café Mezzuna.

 

All eyes are now on the weather gods and skies.

 

Gates, banners, big bucks

 

Bengal’s corporate pulse hits Durga Puja high

 

·         No. of Durga Puja pandals in Kolkata: 2,740

 

·         Budget: ₹10 lakh to ₹2 crore-plus

 

·         Major source of funds for big-budget Durga Puja: Corporate sponsorships