No star-shower at garba venues this Navratri

Navratri, the world’s longest dancing festival has begun with lots of festive cheer and joy. The mood is infectious as scores of men and women dance in perfect rhythm to the beats of dhol, Pankhida Re and of course popular garba numbers of B-Town like Chogada, Rangtaali or Pethalpur/Kamariya (and it is ruling the Navratri-charts this year). But in the midst of all the colourful celebrations, one thing that’s missing is the star-sheen. Popular B-Town stars like Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Sonam Kapoor and many more have visited the state in recent years to add an ultra-glam touch to the Navratri celebrations. Now it’s a different story as we see a big drop in the number of celeb visits from either Bollywood or TV industry. All these years, Navratri has been the time when most movie producers, channels and event-organisers try to grab attention by having starry visits.

What is the reason that has caused this decline in the number of visits by celebs during Navratri? Avani Soni, a celebrity manager shares, “I used to arrange visits of atleast 30-40 artists from both film and TV industry during Navratri at different venues across state. This year, the number is almost nil. There are budget issues that have cropped up since demonetisation as well as GST. Unfortunately, last year many garba events got cancelled due to rains.”
MARKET SLUMP A REASON
Thanks to various strict license issues as well as vehicle parking rules, the event organisers were going through a major conflict of thoughts on whether they would get permits to organize events or not. There was an element of uncertainty. Jaydeep Mehta, president of Event Management Federation and owner of an event management firm shares, “Due to certain financial issues, the market is going through a really tough phase and that has impacted the sponsorship for various Navratri events. Another reason why we are not witnessing celebrities at the garba grounds is that there are hardly any big movie releases for which Bollywood actors would come to Gujarat. Although, we might have TV actors coming over – thanks to various channels that are looking at promoting their shows. At the same time, premier venues are not keen to have star presence as it creates chaos. Instead, they invest on having quality singers so that the real essence of festivity is maintained. Also, lack of high-end sponsorships make it difficult for organizers to shell out money for celebs.”
IT’S ABOUT RETAINING THE TRADITIONAL TOUCH
Many organisers don’t focus on getting celebrities at the venues instead they invest on getting star-singers. As says musician Sanket Khandekar , “Now garba enthusiasts want to experience a solid sense of tradition and for this they are eager to have good quality music. When it comes to celebrity visits, they don’t want those disturbances or distractions in their flow of dance. As the time is limited, people are keener to enjoy the dance rather than to soak in some star presence.” Saumil Chavda, a marketing professional says, “Earlier when the garba-hours were from 9pm to 2am or even late, we didn’t mind having a celebrity. But now, it is hardly from 9 pm to 12 midnight — on an average, any garba venue has maximum revelers from 10.30 pm to midnight only and so we look at making the most of it rather than any celebrity making some talks about their interest in Navratri celebrations.”
Looks like Gujarat is all set to enjoy Navratri without having its share of starry presence. May be the garba revelers are slowly realizing that this festival is actually the star itself!