Lalbagcha or Lalbaugcha Raja 2011

Lalbaugcha Raja 
needs 39 metres of silk material for its dhoti, a shawl measuring 7 metres and 9 metres of silk material with jari work for the waistband. In addition, the idol is adorned with approximately 7 to 8  kilograms of gold

Wardrobe changes
The idol is dressed in a yellow pitamber (dhoti), a stole and a kambar patta (waistband) with a new set of clothes twice every day, at 3am and 3pm. This adds up to 23 sets of clothes for the 11 days of the festival.

Meet the man who dresses up the Lalbaugcha Raja People may be familiar with the names of Manish Malhotra and Vikram Phadnis, fashion designers to the stars. Lalbaug resident Rupesh Pawar, 40, is also a fashion designer but in a wholly different sense. Among the few tailors in the city who are inundated with requests to dress up Ganesh idols before Ganeshotsav, Pawar literally dresses up the gods. Pawar has been making costumes for the Ganesh idol for Lalbaughca Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshoutsav Mandal (LRSGM), organisers of the most visited pandal in the city, for the past 19 years. This year, around 40 lakh devotees are expected to visit the pandal. Having Lalbaugcha Raja as a client makes Pawar a popular choice among other Ganesh mandals in the city, but he refuses to work for suburban mandals since he wouldn't have the time to visit the pandals personally. Currently, Pawar is making attires for 13 large idols, ranging from 8 to 20 feet in height, and for about 30 small ones which will make their way into people's homes. "Whatever I am today is because of Lalbaugcha Raja. I am just a simple tailor but I am recognised because of this Ganesh pandal," he says modestly. Pawar takes four hours to make one set of clothes for an idol and begins work two months ahead of the festival. "The mandal has given me the right to choose the colours for the costumes, including the stoles that the idols wear," he said. While keeping the attire simple, Pawar has introduced new features over time. Since last year, he has been bringing a special rim from Surat to embellish the dhoti worn by the deity. "We had to bring the dhoti border from Surat because we do not get this kind of elaborate handmade designs in Mumbai. Sharad Gahdigaonkar and Omkar Pahate are the two people helping me with this job," added Pawar. Pawar charges Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 to dress up idols less than eight feet in height and from Rs3,500 to Rs4,500 for the taller ones. But for Lalbaugcha Raja, he does all the work for free. He says, "It is a big honour for me to dress up the king of Mumbai's Ganeshas." Make your green Ganesha at home. It's easy Chembur-based family promotes the craft for the sake of environment With a shortage of 'eco-friendly' Ganesha idols in the market, a family of devotees in Chembur is promoting the craft of making idols at home. The Sangoles who live in Chedda Nagar, have been among the first in the city to devise methods to make the Ganesh festival less environmentally-damaging, including immersing idols in artificial ponds so that they do not pollute natural water bodies. Sheetal Sangole, a former school teacher, attended an idol-making workshop in Pune. She said that using simple techniques, idols can be made at a fraction of their cost. Though clay idols dissolve completely in water without choking water bodies, idols manufacturers prefer to make statues out of plaster-of-Paris (PoP) which is cheaper and lighter, though more environmentally destructive than clay. "If the clay idol is immersed in an artificial pond, the clay can be retrieved and reused," said her husband Dr Vijay Sangole, a former municipal doctor and joint secretary of Pestom Sagar Citizens' Forum. "It gives a lot more joy if you worship a Ganesha that you have made yourself," said the couple's son Dr Nishant Sangole, a senior medical advisor with a pharmaceutical company. His wife Prajakta who is an artist, helps paint the idols. The Sangoles have faced opposition from right wing groups that have said that an 'eco-friendly' Ganeshotsav violates religious traditions. "But when Ganesh idols were not made in workshops, people fashioned Ganeshas out of clay dug from their courtyards. The idols were immersed in the village wells. What we are doing was the original practice in villages," said Dr Vijay.