Lights, Camera, Pujo! Club Prantik Rolls Out Ramoji Film City for Its 22nd Year in Taherpur

Ask anyone in Taherpur where the real competition to Kolkata's biggest pandals is brewing, and Club Prantik's name comes up before you've even finished the question. This year, the club isn't just adding another theme to its list — it's building an entire film set inside a pandal, and the banner it just dropped is proof that they mean business.

The reveal is called "Ramoji Film City by Club Prantik," and if the name sounds familiar, it should. Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad is one of the largest film studio complexes in the world, a place where entire eras of Indian cinema were shot, frame by frame, on purpose-built streets and sets. Club Prantik has decided to bring a slice of that magic to Nadia, and going by the banner alone, they're not cutting corners.

A Banner Straight Out of a Movie Set

The first thing that hits you about this banner isn't the text — it's the sheer amount of storytelling packed into one frame. A towering replica of the Statue of Liberty stands guard on one side, neon signage for "ABC Cinema" glowing blue behind it, while a hot pink "Lamb's Motel" sign lights up the opposite end, complete with a ticket counter straight out of an old single-screen theatre. Between them runs a boulevard lined with vintage film posters — Sholay, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Mohabbatein, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, and Lagaan — each one instantly recognisable to anyone who grew up on Bollywood matinees. A film reel and a director's clapperboard reading "Lights Camera Puja" sit in the foreground, and a fountain glows warm gold at the centre, right where the arched "Ramoji Movie Magic" gate opens up.

Above all of it sits the line that ties the whole concept together: "মা আসছে — Let the Magic Begin." It's a clever bit of copywriting, really — because in Bengali households, "Maa asche" (Mother is coming) is the phrase that marks the start of the Pujo countdown every single year. Pairing it with a film studio's tagline turns Durga's homecoming into the biggest premiere of the season, and honestly, that's exactly what a Club Prantik Pujo has always felt like in Taherpur.

The badge in the corner makes it official: this is Club Prantik's 22nd year, and the banner proudly calls it "22 years of tradition, devotion and togetherness." Twenty-two years is a meaningful stretch for any community Pujo — long enough to have built a loyal following, and young enough to still be experimenting boldly with its themes.

Khuti Puja, Timed to the Rath

The visual from that morning tells its own quiet story. A single bamboo pole — the khuti itself — stands wrapped in a thick spiral of orange marigolds, with a auspicious swastik marked in vermillion near its base. A red checked gamchha is tied just below the top, a small string tassel hanging off it the way it traditionally does in Bengal's rural pujas, and a pink lotus rests at the foot of the pole alongside a brass bell and a kalash. It's a far cry from the neon and film posters of the theme banner, and that contrast is sort of the point — before the spectacle comes the ritual, and Club Prantik clearly hasn't let one crowd out the other.

The khuti puja graphic itself carried a promise: that the committee's "much-awaited theme for the 22nd year" would be unveiled on this occasion. Ramoji Film City is that promise, kept.

Why a Film City Theme Actually Fits Taherpur

It would be easy to dismiss a Bollywood-themed pandal as just spectacle for spectacle's sake, but there's a more interesting angle here if you think about it for a second. Ramoji Film City isn't a fictional idea — it's a real, sprawling complex near Hyderabad that has functioned as the backdrop for hundreds of films across languages, and it holds a Guinness World Record as the world's largest film studio complex. You can read more about the scale of the place on Ramoji Film City's own site. Recreating even a slice of that inside a Nadia pandal is an ambitious technical undertaking, involving fabricated storefronts, a working fountain, life-size cinema-hall facades, and enough neon signage to make an entire street glow after dark.

For a district town like Taherpur, this kind of theme also does something else — it pulls in a crowd that might otherwise have only made the trip to Kolkata's headline pandals. Nadia's Pujo scene has been growing sharper and more competitive every year, with clubs investing in themes that used to be the exclusive territory of Kolkata's biggest budgets. Club Prantik choosing cinema — something universally loved across generations — as its 22nd-year subject is a smart bet on nostalgia doing the heavy lifting.

The Season's First Local Partnership: Panchayet Cafe

Interestingly, the same banner that announced the theme also carried a second message, from a local Taherpur business getting into the festive spirit early. Panchayet Cafe, described as "Taherpur's own cafe and adda zone" and located right by the Taherpur Rail Gate, used the banner space to send its own festive greeting — "মায়ের আগমনী ও খুশির আগমনী হোক পাঞ্চায়েত ক্যাফের সাথে" (Let the arrival of Maa and the arrival of joy happen together with Panchayet Cafe). It's a small detail, but it says something about how deeply a Pujo like Club Prantik's is woven into the local economy — cafes, food stalls, decorators, and tailors around Taherpur all effectively run on the momentum a big theme like this generates.

What Club Prantik Has Promised So Far

The banner lists three things visitors can expect this year: a grand pandal, built around the film-city concept; film themes running through the visual design, likely extending to smaller installations recreating scenes and studio corners; and cultural shows, which in past years at Taherpur's bigger clubs have ranged from local folk performances to full stage productions during the Pujo days. The banner ends on "stay tuned for more updates," which tells us the committee is planning a staggered reveal — banner first, khuti puja documented, and presumably the idol, artist credits, and full pandal construction updates to follow in the coming weeks.

Taherpur's Quiet Rise as a Pujo Destination

Twenty years ago, if you asked a Kolkata resident where to go pandal-hopping, Nadia wouldn't have made the shortlist. That's changed considerably over the last decade, and Taherpur — a small town roughly 80 kilometres from Kolkata, tucked near Nadia's border with Ranaghat — has been one of the quieter reasons why. It doesn't have Kolkata's sheer volume of clubs, but the ones it does have have leaned into ambition rather than scale, treating their annual theme reveal the way bigger Kolkata clubs treat theirs: as an event in its own right, not an afterthought.

Club Prantik, founded in 2003 (a detail the banner itself notes, right under the club's logo), has spent 22 years building exactly this kind of reputation locally. A milestone year like this one tends to bring out a club's most ambitious ideas, and choosing a globally recognised film studio as the concept — rather than something safer — suggests the committee is treating its 22nd Pujo less like a routine edition and more like a statement about where Taherpur's Durgotsab culture is headed next.

A Quick Snapshot Before You Plan Your Visit

• Club: Club Prantik, Taherpur, Nadia — established 2003
• Milestone: 22nd year of Durga Puja celebrations
• Theme 2026: Ramoji Film City by Club Prantik
• Khuti Puja: Performed on 16th July, timed with Rath Yatra
• Highlights promised: Grand pandal, film-themed installations, cultural shows
• Local tie-in: Panchayet Cafe, Taherpur Rail Gate

Keep this bookmarked — as bamboo turns into built structure over the coming weeks, details like idol artist, lighting designer, and opening dates usually follow, and that's exactly the kind of update we track through the season.

Following the Journey from Bamboo to Boulevard

Every big theme starts exactly the way this one has — a khuti in the ground and a banner announcing the intent. What comes next is months of quiet, unglamorous work: bamboo scaffolding rising panel by panel, artisans shaping facades that will later carry neon and paint, and somewhere in the workshops of Kumartuli, an idol taking form the same way it has for generations of Bengal's Durga Pujas. We follow that entire arc — from the first khuti puja to the final pandal walkthrough — across our Khuti Puja 2026 coverage, tracking clubs in Kolkata and the districts alike as their themes go from paper to pandal.

For real-time updates on Ramoji Film City as it takes shape, Club Prantik's official Facebook page is the place to watch — the committee has historically used it to post construction progress, artist reveals, and event dates as the season builds toward Mahalaya.

For now, the khuti stands garlanded on a Taherpur street, the banner is up, and the promise is simple: this Pujo, you don't just visit a pandal in Nadia — you walk straight into a film set. Twenty-two years in, Club Prantik still knows how to make an entrance.

Image credit: Club Prantik Committee