Tolly gears up for Diwali betting game

KOLKATA: Diwali parties in Tollywood can’t compare with those in Bollywood. But so can’t the budget of movies from the two film industry. That’s not stopping members of the local entertainment industry from indulging in the customary betting and card parties that are associated with Diwali.
This is the first time that producer Pawan Kanoria and his friends are planning to host a three long-long Diwali casino party.“Apart from the roulette board, we will also play the casino banking game called blackjack. Some 25 odd families will participate. Apart from me and producer Pradip Churiwal, none of the others are from the film industry. We will all play for fun,” Kanoria said.
Churiwal is even more enthusiastic. A regular at casinos in Kathmandu and Gangtok, Churiwal said, “We will have lotteries and the winners will get silver items as gifts.” Churiwal also insisted that many from Bengal are planning to hit the Gangtok casinos just before the Diwali weekend from November 6 to November 8. “Come Diwali and people will be back home since it’s family time then. I’ve personally both won and lost as much as Rs 50,000 while gambling,” Churiwal said. Post-Diwali this year, he will be hitting a casino in Kathmandu where Sunny Leone is supposed to make an appearance.
Releasing movies, which is the biggest gamble of sorts, has always been a big draw during Diwali. Unfortunately, this year producers of big-budget Bengali movies haven’t taken any risk. While Durga Pujas saw seven Bengali movies releasing simultaneously, it’s a quiet Diwali for Tollywood what with a largely empty field being reserved for Salman Khan’s “Prem Ratan Dhan Pao”. “We are looking at 200+ theatres screening Salman’s movie in Bengal during Diwali,” said Arun Mehra, proprietor of Aum Moviez that’s distributing the film. The remaining theatres will be reserved for three new Bengali movies – Soumitra Chatterjee’s ‘Selfie’, Rajatava Dutta’s ‘Not a Dirty Film’ and Sabyasachi Chakraborty’s ‘Miss Butterfly’ and the spill over content from the earlier weeks. “While Rs 20 crore was riding on Tollywood’s Pujo releases, Diwali will see a maximum of Rs 2 crore riding on the Bengali releases. That’s not good news for the industry,” said Krishna Daga, vice president of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association.
Producer Ashok Dhanuka, who used to once host Diwali lotteries for the industry, also agrees. Despite not having any release this Diwali, he isn’t missing out on his share of partying during Diwali. “I miss those good old days of betting for fun in Kolkata. In the film distribution circuit, we used to distribute lottery tickets. Hundred tickets worth Rs 1000 were sold. After a draw, we would give out first, second and third prizes. The winners would get gold or silver coins. The collected money would be used to throw parties for the industry,” Dhanuka recalled.
The last such lottery that he hosted was in 2008. This year, Dhanuka and his son will purchase Diwali lottery tickets from clubs. “That’s a good luck charm for us. We also play cards with our family members. In the business community in Kolkata, earlier there was a trend of taking off to Kathmandu. People would stay for four days, frequent the casinos and come back. Now, people might go to Goa and Gangtok,” Dhanuka said.
Private card parties are still big among a few in Tollywood. According to producer Ajay Jhunjhunwala, poker has now replaced the traditional ‘teen patti’. Over vegetarian food and drinks, betting sometimes continues all through the night. “Our friends organise card parties at one of our residences. There is no theme or dress code since everyone goes traditional. Each table, where six to eight people play, is worth Rs 50,000. In Kolkata, I have seen people spend upto Rs 10 lakh on one night at a card party,” Jhunjhunwala said.
Muhurat trading at the stock exchange is also big during Diwali. Producers buy shares upto Rs 25 lakh during those two to three hours when the stock exchange opens on Diwali. If the market movement is good, producers like Jhunjhunwala might invest that amount in stocks this Diwali too.