Asian Paints Marks 40 Years of Sharad Shamman in Kolkata

News Desk, News Nation 360 : Asian Paints Sharad Shamman, the most famous Durga Pujo event in Kolkata, will observe its 40th anniversary in 2025 with the historic "Cholte Cholte 40" initiative, which turns the city's yellow taxis into moving time capsules. Each cab is transformed into a multisensory window into its decade, featuring lavishly painted exteriors and interiors designed as immersive spaces with rich wallpaper, textiles, and textures. Asian Paints is a symbol of elevating the ordinary. Reiterating the organisation's tagline, Aitijyer Pujo, Uddiponar Pujo (A celebration of tradition, a festival of passion), these taxis collectively bring four decades of Asian Paints Sharad Shamman's cultural collection back onto the streets of Kolkata. Prominent figures from Bengal, including Abir Chatterjee and Sauraseni Maitra, along with Amit Syngle, MD and CEO of Asian Paints Ltd., attended the unveiling of this one-of-a-kind homage to Kolkata. Speaking on the occasion, Amit Syngle, MD and CEO of Asian Paints Ltd., stated that Asian Paints Sharad Shamman was founded in 1985 to honour Pujo's inventiveness. It has evolved into a live chronicle of Kolkata's creative energy

after forty years. At Asian Paints, Kolkata has always been more than just a city to them; it has been an inspiration that has shaped their perceptions of homes as meaningful worlds and colour as culture. The yellow taxi seems like the most appropriate homage to this historic year. Pujo's constant buddy, who has transported families, craftspeople, and tales throughout the city. Their "Royal Tribute to Kolkata" is this. Asian Paints Sharad Shamman, founded in 1985 via an advertisement in a newspaper, transformed the city's understanding of Pujo as being both an act of creativity and design as well as worship, with its first edition dedicating the Best Puja award to three committees, and going on to expand its categories over the decades into Best Puja (Shrestho Pujo), Discovery of the Year (Bochorer Bismoy), and Best Artisan (Shrestho Protimashilpi) while creating a four-decade-long archive for documenting the festival's evolution. As a tribute to commemorate these forty years, Asian Paints honored the legendary yellow Kolkata taxi, traditionally a part of Pujo pandal-hopping, artisan transport, and carrying judges, by converting forty taxis—each symbolizing a decade of the awards—into roaming archives with interiors adorned in Asian Paints Royale curtains, wallpapers, under-seat lighting, UV highlights, and reflective finishes, while exteriors overlaid recognizably yellow with motifs from every decade and topped with the "Crown of Pujo" as a gesture towards Asian Paints' reputation and enduring legacy. The interior of the taxis was carefully planned with Asian Paints' wallpaper and fabric collections, such as Paris–Calcutta and Heartland by Sabyasachi, La Vie, Magnolia Home, and Solace series, complemented by Royale Glitz paints, to create an immersive and genuinely representative environment for each decade, thereby affirming Asian Paints Sharad Shamman's commitment to creativity and high-sheen craftsmanship in Pujo festivities.

Pic - Krishnendu Kundu