Organisers pray for clear skies

Mumbai: This year’s Navratri festival with its various garba events may be marred by the rains. Organisers who have invested a lot of money in hiring venues and making arrangements for the 10 days are resorting to insurance to recover their losses. Organisers of the Ruparel-Navratri dandiya and the Preeti-Pinky dandiya, say that they have an insurance cover of up to Rs 6 crore, which includes sudden heavy rain and other natural calamities. Some organisers have also arranged for wooden floors on the sludgy grounds. Special roofs are also being created for chief guests and the orchestra as well as hangars to shield the woofers, sound system and other electrical fittings

The Pramod Mahajan Sports Complex in Borivali which hosts the Ruparel Navratri Utsav, which has roped in star performer Falguni Pathak for their event. Talking to The Asian Age, organiser Shiva Shetty said, “We have an insurance of 6 crores, but we hope that everything turns out well. We have installed almost thousands of CCTV camera for security purposes and we have quite a few women security bouncers as well.”

On the rain problem, he said, “To tackle the rain problem, we have installed a wooden floor across the 2,00,000 sq ft ground. Around 300 workers are working to ensure the ground is ready for the festival,” he said.

Chetan Gaur, the organiser of the Preeti-Pinky Dandiya at Kutchi, Borivali West, said, “We have an insurance cover of around 5 crores, which includes everything from heavy rains to natural calamities. But it is a gamble and we have taken whatever measures that we can think of. We have ensured wooden planks for the garba dancers. We have made arrangements to accommodate almost one lakh people,: he claimed.

Organisers spoke about the three-month long preparation time needed to organise the event as it includes getting artistes, sponsors, media tie-ups, designers, publicity, decorations, ground booking and various permissions. Several permissions are required to hold such events. The biggest blow to the celebrations has been the 10pm deadline and decibel limit. Since the scale of the programme is large, organisers prefer to toe the line where deadlines are concerned.  Thinning crowds is also one of the problems faced by organisers, who can expect full houses only during the  weekends.