Onkar Kulkarni (BOMBAY TIMES; August 25, 2020)

Like many Mumbaikars, Siddhant Chaturvedi, too, celebrates Ganesh Utsav along with his housing society members. For over two decades now, the actor and his friends have been organising community festivities in his residential complex. The actor, who gained immense popularity with Gully Boy last year, gives full credit to this festival for giving birth to the filmi keeda in him. In an exclusive chat with BT, he shares his childhood memories associated with the celebrations. Read on…

It’s been over 20 years that your residential complex has been celebrating Ganesh Utsav. Tell us all about these seven days of festivities...
I was just five years old when we moved to this building (in Goregaon) in 1998. Since then, we have been organising this seven-day affair where people from different cultures get together. We plan a drawing competition and sports day, which includes cricket and football matches. We play a game of housie and do dance-offs, too. Considering I was a good dancer, the society members would keep my performance for the last day, like a cherry on the cake (laughs!). My society’s Ganpati celebrations gave me my first stage to perform. It is on this stage that I got appreciation and won confidence. It gave me a feeling that at least apne mohalle ka main hero hoon.

From then till now, how involved have you been in the process over the years?
It’s like a ghar ka Ganpati for my family. I have been one of the main members organising the event. I usually direct skits and plays, and also participate in the dance. Last year, my involvement went down a bit because of work. So, my brother who is 16, did a solo performance. Otherwise, since childhood, we have been performing together. I have danced on Shankar Mahadevan’s Ganpati songs like Shree Ganeshaya Dheemahi, which was my first attempt at classical dance. I also remember one year, where I danced on Kajra Re with all the aunties of the building and then the uncles joined in, too. Last year, I was busy with a shoot, and so, I came in very late for the event. They called me on stage, and one of the society members interviewed me. I was grilled with questions, like who I was seeing, my line-up of movies and also a rapid-fire round.

How has the Coronavirus pandemic affected your celebrations this year?
This year, we are organising performances and competitions, but through video apps. From drawing to dance, everything will happen through video conferencing. I will be hosting a game of housie, too, through the app.

The visarjan is also a huge part of the celebration, which will obviously be missed this year...
You cannot imagine how much I would dance on the streets during the visarjan. From Goregaon, we go to Powai for visarjan. During the journey, which would last for three-four hours, we would dance like crazy on Marathi songs like Wajle Ki Bara, Vaat Majhi Baghtoy Rickshawala, etc. I would dance along with my friends, full-on Tshirt faadke (laughs!). I would go down on my knees and dance on the road… joota kidhar hai, chappal kidhar hai, gulaal aankh, kaan, naak mein udd raha hai…total madness. After this intense cardio, with hungry stomachs, we would hop onto the truck and have garma garam vada pav.