125 years of Pune’s greatest festival - Ganeshotsav - and no brand ambassador... yet
PMC has been trying to get Sachin Tendulkar on board as brand ambassador for over a month, to no avail yet. With nine days to go and celebrations already kicking off, sadly, the Ganesh Festival in its 125th year has no brand ambassador
PUNE Though the 125th-year Ganesh Festival celebrations have begun, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) still has no confirmation on whether Sachin Tendulkar will be brand ambassador.
The move to get the legendary Indian cricketer on board came because this is the 125th year of the festival started by Lokmanya Tilak from Pune, and so the PMC decided to up the ante on branding and events in the city.
Mayor Mukta Tilak and leader of the house in the PMC, Srinath Bhimale, announced that they would appoint Tendulkar as brand ambassador for the festival a month ago.
Now Bhimale told HT that he is personally trying to get the nod from Tendulkar.
Bhimale said, “The PMC had written a letter to Tendulkar. Even the state finance minister Sudhir Munguntiwar wrote a letter to Tendulkar as regards the PMC’s request to become brand ambassador. ”
The PMC has already begun celebrations of the 125th year in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, but there is no news from Tendulkar yet.
Bhimale said that he is now following it up with the state leadership.
PMC is planning two Guinness World Records during the festival and hope to get Tendulkar’s nod before the core 10-days of the festival itself begins on August 25.
The PMC will have more than 3,000 dhol-tasha (drummers) perform together on August 23 at the S P College ground to create a new record and the aim is to have Tendulkar present for this function.
The other Guinness record attempt will be 3,000 school students creating ecofriendly Ganesh idols together at the Baburao Sanas ground near Swargate, on August 24.
If not Sachin, then who?
If not Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador for the 125th Ganesh Festival, then who?, is the question. Opposition parties are suggesting that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appoint city-based artist Subodh Bhave as brand ambassador, but the ruling BJP have fixed their minds on Tendulkar. Now some of the BJP members are also worried that the festival will happen without a brand ambassador and, off the record, want the PMC to keep three or four other personalities on a shortlist instead of relaying only on Sachin Tendulkar.