It is chanting time and enchanting times. The chants of Ganpati Bappa Morya can be heard at every nook and corner, and in lanes and by-lanes of Bombay and Maharashtra and in homes where Ganpati is accorded a royal welcome.

But what does the festival of Ganpati, which begins with getting an idol of the Lord at home and ends with immersing it in the sea, mean to the film people?

It is common knowledge that filmi people are wont to publicise any and every remarkable moment of their lives and careers. But curiously enough, no film celebrity intentionally seeks publicity for his/her Ganesh bhakti. For, film people consider their religious practices to be their private domain rather than a public affair.

For many years -- and several years back -- it was V. Shantaram who was considered the most ardent devotee in the film industry, of the elephant-headed God. And the reason for it was the massive Ganpati idol he used to install every year in the hallowed premises of his magnificent Rajkamal Kalamandir Studio at Parel in Bombay.

Shantaram first showed his massive Ganpati on the screen in his Navrang. The film became a huge hit when it was released in 1959. And since then, for many years, V. Shantaram’s Ganpati used to be a grand attraction for Mumbaiites, for its artistic richness and for the sculptor’s creation of animated expression on the Lord’s visage.

Shantaram’s son, Kiran Shantaram, reminisces: “We unfailingly brought the Navrang-type huge Ganpati idols from 1959 to 1972 (14 years). We still bring a Ganpati idol to our studio every year. On the last day of the 10-day festival, we immerse it in the sea at the nearby Shivaji Park.

"Those days (in my father’s time), however, Ganpati festival used to be celebrated by us on a lavish scale. We would walk in a long procession, spending a major part of the immersion day and evening to reach Girgaum Chowpatty. Our Ganpati used to be the talk of the city and the whole of India.”

Yes, V. Shantaram’s Ganpati and the celebrations that went with it had the spectacle of the rich production values that used to be a compulsory part of all his films, whether it was Navrang, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje or Sehra, Geet Gaya Patthro Ne or Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijlee.

Among the present generation in the film industry, Nana Patekar is one ardent devotee of Lord Ganesh. Though Nana does not like to make a show of his devotion to the Lord of knowledge and prosperity, there are newspaper photographers who welcome themselves into Nana’s house during the Ganpati festival and cajole him into posing for the camera alongside his Lord.