Durga Puja is less than a month away and fans and admirers of actor Sushant Singh Rajput continue to remember the actor in ever new ways. This year, various artists and Durga Puja organisers of West Bengal have decided to pay tribute to the late actor through pandal decorations and the light artists of Chandannagar, too, are not far behind.

But why SSR, we ask. “We got an order from a popular Puja organiser in Chandannagar. They wanted to pay tribute to the late actor through our lightings. We have done the drawing first and then the stencil is made. With the help of the stencil, we perforate a metal or a fibre plate and put in LED lights before colouring and polishing it with varnish,” said Babu Pal, a senior light artist. When contacted, Nirmal Kumar Das of the Chandannagar Puja committee said, “We all are pained by the untimely death of the young actor. We are not interested in the controversy that is taking place with regard to his death right now. We just want to remember him fondly and hope his soul rests in peace.”

Another club known as Masterda Smriti Sangha, near Kolkata, has decided to decorate their pandal with Sushant’s portraits drawn on traditional Kalighat patachitra saucers. While the committee refused to divulge details of the actual theme of their puja, we have learnt that the Kartik idol may be crafted to resemble the Dil Bechara and Byomkesh Bakshi actor.

Shimul Majumder, secretary of the club, told us that Sushant Singh Rajput was an actor who had impressed Bengalis with his portrayal for the popular fictional character Byomkesh. “More than that, his death is a loss for the entire nation. On the other hand, good-looking Bengali men are compared to Kartik, the handsome god who leads Maa Durga’s army. Sushant’s features and looks match the description of Kartik and that’s why we decided to portray him as Kartik in our Puja,” he added.