Theme calendars turn flavour of the year with celeb pets, comic book heroes & cultural icons

Kolkata: Theme calendars by individuals, and online groups, have given a fresh lease of life to calendars after two years of Covid gloom.
Paramita Munshi, an animal activist and an independent film-maker, has made a celebrity pet calendar to raise funds to feed 300 pets, including dogs and cats, every month. “A pet calendar of this scale is a first. It also a tribute to my dog Newton who passed away last year,” she said.
Several Tollywood actors, singers, poets, educators, and even cops, have posed with pets for this calendar. “The shoot was done professionally and the cause was motivating,” said Prasun Banerjee, DIG (Midnapore Range), who is also an actor. Banerjee had posed with actor Rupanjana Mitra and a labrador. “The funds raised will also be utilised for sterilization of dogs and cats. We also want to acquire a pet ambulance,” Munshi said.
Bijoy Chowdhury (60), a visual communicator, has focused on ‘the melody of single screens in Kolkata’. Chowdhury has been making calendars since 2005 to gift friends and family. He has a 12-page table calendar with photographs he has clicked. “Due to the pandemic, I paused for the last two years. But resumed this year. This time I chose black-and-white photographs that connect with Kolkata’s disappearing single screens,” he said.
An avid documentary photographer, Chowdhury has done calendars on China Town in Kolkata, the city’s old music shops, letter boxes, Howrah bridge, hand-rickshaw pullers, Bandwallah, and Chitpore Road.
Indrajal Comics Fans Club, a social media private group, made a calendar series with comic heroes, including which includes popular characters like Aranyadeb (Phantom), Handa Bhonda, Bantul The Great, Asterix, Batman, Tintin, Spiderman, Lucky Luke, and others. The 12-page table calendar has been shared in a high resolution printable version for download. “One of our die-hard fans from Santoshpur, who never discloses his identity and loves to volunteer for our group with the pseudonym Samratrix, ideated the whole calendar,” said Biswajit Datta, one of the founders of the group.
Noton Sarkar (69), a retired designer, made a table calendar on doodle art done by his friend Sekhar Mukherjee, an animation designer who is the founder director of NID, Andhra Pradesh. Suvajit Dutt (34), a graphics designer from Kalikapur, showcases heroes from Bengali detective literature on his calendar. “The calendar is in high demand from clients staying out of Kolkata and we have sold 300 pieces already,” Dutt said. Popular detective characters, like Feluda, Byomkesh, Kiriti, and Kakababu, have been featured along with some of the lesser-known fictional Bengali detectives, like Arjun, Colonel Niladri Sarkar, Kikira, Parashar Barma, and Gogol. The calendar has been printed in English and Bengali both.
Art college passout Saikat Sarkar (30) from Uttarpara has made his own imaginary digital paintings to illustrate Kolkata’s landmarks with Bengali legends, with the theme “Ebong Kolkata”.