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By:

Rajendra Pandharpure

15 April 2025 at 7:55:54 pm

The BJP’s Ganesha Gambit

Pune’s Ganeshotsav has become an enormous civic and political stage, and the ruling party has proved adept at occupying it. Pune: The city’s Ganeshotsav is entering its final phase, but the festival has already demonstrated something beyond its extraordinary crowds and familiar spectacle: the extent to which it has become a political stage. This year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left a particularly visible imprint on the festivities, using an event that reaches deep into the city’s...

The BJP’s Ganesha Gambit

Pune’s Ganeshotsav has become an enormous civic and political stage, and the ruling party has proved adept at occupying it. Pune: The city’s Ganeshotsav is entering its final phase, but the festival has already demonstrated something beyond its extraordinary crowds and familiar spectacle: the extent to which it has become a political stage. This year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left a particularly visible imprint on the festivities, using an event that reaches deep into the city’s neighbourhoods as an opportunity for public outreach. The political appropriation of the festival has not, however, been without a counter-current. Demands were raised for curbs on noise pollution, loudspeakers and the volume of dhol-tasha performances. The argument was not against Ganeshotsav itself, but for moderation - notably, a complete ban on DJ music and limits on the number of dhol and tasha instruments used by performing troupes. Familiar Troubles The festival’s reality has been rather different. Major roads have been occupied by mandaps. Processions celebrating the arrival of Lord Ganesha have unfolded amid punishing noise. DJ music, while subject to restrictions, has continued. Traffic congestion has become a familiar feature of the festival, with the movement of political leaders adding another layer to the city’s already strained roads. The Peth areas have remained crowded deep into the night. The Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati temple has drawn enormous crowds for darshan from the opening day. From the old city to housing societies and neighbourhood mandals, Ganeshotsav touches virtually every part of Pune. For a political party seeking a direct connection with citizens, few occasions offer such a ready-made network of people, institutions and local influencers. The BJP enters this festival with an unusually formidable organisational base. It has two MPs, seven MLAs and more than 100 corporators in Pune. Murlidhar Mohol, one of the city’s MPs, is a Union Minister of State. Chandrakant Patil is a Cabinet minister in the Maharashtra government, while Madhuri Misal is a Minister of State. The party’s presence also extends into the festival’s organisational architecture. Its influence is visible across numerous mandals, large and small. BJP MLA Hemant Rasane is General Secretary of the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Sarvajanik Ganpati Trust. Kunal Tilak, a member of Lokmanya Tilak’s family, is a BJP corporator. The political and cultural histories of Pune therefore intersect in ways that are difficult to ignore. The BJP’s senior leadership has also made the most of the occasion. National President Nitin Nabin visited Pune to seek Lord Ganesha’s blessings, while Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the city before and during the festival. Such visits are about more than religious observance. In a festival watched by millions and embedded in the city’s social life, political visibility comes almost automatically. There is also talk in Pune that the BJP provided substantial financial support to Dhol-Lezim troupes and their organisers, with claims that some major mandals received financial backing as well. These claims would require independent verification, but the perception itself points to the depth of the political contest around Ganeshotsav. BJP workers, according to local observers, have also sought to make their presence more conspicuous than that of festivities organised by housing societies. Useful Expedient The festival arrives at a politically useful moment for the BJP. The party has faced disquiet on several fronts. Young people have been agitated over the paper-leak controversy. Broader public dissatisfaction has been voiced over inflation and unemployment, while government policies relating to ethanol and charges associated with UPI transactions have also generated criticism. While a political party can defend a policy in a press conference and advertise its achievements, during Ganeshotsav, its workers can be physically present in neighbourhoods, among processions, mandals, cultural groups and devotees. Politics thus becomes less about argument and more about visibility. That is the BJP’s advantage in Pune. Ganeshotsav, after all, is not simply a sequence of religious rituals. It is an elaborate civic network involving local organisers, volunteers, cultural groups, businesses, residents and political representatives. Whoever has influence over that network acquires a powerful channel of communication with the city. The BJP appears to understand this particularly well. Its strength in Pune’s electoral politics has been reinforced by a presence that extends beyond elections and into the institutions and social spaces that organise public life. The irony is that the very scale of the festival that makes it politically attractive also magnifies the civic costs. The political value of Ganeshotsav and the civic burden it creates are therefore two sides of the same phenomenon. For Pune, the larger question is not whether politics has entered Ganeshotsav. It has done so for decades. The more consequential question is whether the festival’s extraordinary social capital will remain primarily a vehicle for political outreach or whether the same influence can be used to reconcile celebration with the ordinary civic needs of the city. For the moment, the BJP seems to have understood the first proposition better than most.

Cinema’s Quiet Unifier

Quaid Najmi
Apr 3
3 min read

A. Krishnamurthi’s maiden Marathi film was inspired by Balasaheb Thackeray

Mumbai: Renowned film producer A. Krishnamurthi, founder of Tina Films International (TFI), passed away early Friday following a brief illness. He was 98. He breathed his last at Lilavati Hospital, Bandra, where he had been admitted three days ago, his daughter Ramya Iyer said.


“He is survived by his wife Mathuram, sons K. Ravi Shankar and K. Ramji, and myself,” an emotional Ramya Iyer said.


In a final act reflecting his lifelong commitment to society, Krishnamurthi’s mortal remains were donated to the Somaiya Medical College & Research Centre, in keeping with his wishes. “He had expressed his desire to donate his body for medical education several years ago. The family has honoured that wish,” said his son-in-law, Venkat Iyer.


From 1983, the TFI banner went on to produce a string of successful Hindi films under his stewardship, including “Ghar Ek Mandir” (1984), “Swarag Se Sunder” (1986), “Sindoor” (1987), “Charanon Ki Saugandh” (1988), “Gharana” (1989), “Benaam Badsha” (1991), “Meherbaan” (1993), “Aag” (1994), and “Himmatwala” and “Mere Do Anmol Ratan” (both 1998).


A firm believer in nurturing fresh talent, Krishnamurthi gave the crucial ‘break’ to many actors and technicians across Bollywood and South Indian film industry - Sonali Bendre, Namrata Shirodkar, Sonam, Rupini, Khushboo, directors, writers, music-directors, singers, and trained his sons - as they went on to become big names over the years, a legacy he cherished deeply, said his family.


Bridges of Harmony

In a turbulent period marked by rising regional tensions and cultural animosity, a genteel and powerful Krishnamurthi built bridges of harmony through the medium of cinema – and succeeded.


In the late-1960s, when the fiery cartoonist and Shiv Sena founder Bal Keshav Thackeray spearheaded a strident campaign against South Indians – with the unsettling slogan “Bajao Pungi, Hatao Lungi” - a young Krishnamurthi, himself a ‘Madrassi’ outsider in Mumbai, managed to win over the tempestuous Tiger.


Armed with Thackeray’s “blessings”, Krishnamurthi ventured into Marathi cinema with his debut production, “Devmanoos” (1970). Featuring an illustrious cast including Durga Khote, Kashinath Ghanekar, Ramesh Deo and music by Sudhir Phadke, the film emerged as a symbolic, cultural and cinematic statement - signaling a thaw in strained social equations then.


Freedom Movement

Born with a quiet resilience, Krishnamurthi had earlier been part of India’s freedom struggle, briefly imprisoned and suffered British batons during the Quit India Movement (1942). That early brush with sacrifice and nationhood shaped his worldview which he later expressed through his films, which consistently championed unity, family values, communal amity and social harmony.


After his Marathi foray, he produced a Gujarati film “Sansar Chakra” (1978), rooted in themes of familial bonds. But it was in 1983 that his cinematic vision went full-throated with the launch of Tina Films International (TFI), marking his entry into mainstream Hindi cinema.


Over the next decade, Krishnamurthi also produced two Telugu films - “Puttinti Pattu Cheera” (1990) and “Amma Kadupu Chellaga” (1991) - further expanding his multilingual footprint.


“With his charismatic personality, he brought together people of all faiths and backgrounds. He helped dissolve prejudices against South Indians at a time when divisions ran deep,” recalled his daughter Ramya Iyer.


Creative Talent

However, Krishnamurthi’s journey in the glamour world cinema began humbly in 1948 under the mentorship of the legendary S. S. Vasan, founder of Gemini Studios in Chennai. He later worked with leading production houses such as Venus Pictures and Padmalaya Studios, learning the art and craft of film-making from some of the finest minds in Indian cinema.


Often regarded as “one of the most creative talents to emerge from Vasan’s stable”, Krishnamurthi went on to carve his own distinct cinematic identity through TFI. His films - marked by strong narratives, moral clarity and emotional depth - always celebrated Indian cultural values, enriched by memorable music, songs and dance.


A gifted linguist, he was fluent in Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, English, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. This rare ability allowed him to connect effortlessly across regions and cultures, and infused sheer authenticity into his cinematic narratives.


Beyond cinema, Krishnamurthi was deeply committed to the arts and cultural integration. A longtime member of the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts & Sangeetha Sabha in Sion, he played an active role in promoting cultural dialogue.


He was felicitated in 1992 by C. Subramaniam and was associated with organisations such as the Bharat Cultural Integration Committee and the Madras Telugu Academy.


He also organised national film festivals and cultural events centred on communal harmony and universal brotherhood - ideals he upheld both on and off screen.


Old timers who knew him say Krishnamurthi’s greatest legacy lies not merely in the films he produced, but in the bridges he built - across languages, regions and communities - coming across as a quiet unifier and a narrator who believed cinema could heal, connect and endure.

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