Thakurani Jatra festival has brought hopes of good income for Chitralaya, the costume rental and body painting units of Berhampur that have lost much business due to dearth of mythological plays and folk theatre shows.
As a mark of respect to goddess Budhi Thakurani, devotees dress up as mythological characters during this festival giving a carnival look to the city. At present there are a dozen permanent Chitralayas in Berhampur renting out costumes. As enactment of mythological plays and folk theatres has gone down, their business has also been affected by it. But according to these Chitralaya owners, every alternate year they get a chance to compensate this loss. During this festival hundreds of devotees get themselves painted and dressed up as mythological characters. As the demand is high apart from the permanent Chitralaya several small makeshift ones also open up at street corners.
According to Durga Prasad Acharya, president of Odisha Chitralaya Owners’ Association, the mythological characters popular among Thakurani Jatra devotees are Krishna, Radha, Durga, Shiva, Parsuram, Ram, Laxman, and Hanuman. Devotees are charged Rs.200 to Rs.1000 for their transformation to a mythological character on the basis of quality of the costume and body painting.
The costliest costume happens to be that of a tiger for which whole body is painted with the stripes of tiger. It costs around Rs.5000.
During Thakurani Jatra festival, the Chitralaya owners of Berhampur employ body painters from different parts of Ganjam district due to increase in work load. This also provides some income to young artists of rural areas.
