Kat, Deepika, and Bebo are the hottest phuljhadis in the city

With just a week left for Diwali, the firecracker sale has already begun in the city. And this year too, it is the Bollywood stars who are making their presence felt in a big way in Nagpur’s patakha market…
Aerial rules
When youngsters and young-at-heart constantly seek innovation in each and every sphere of life, one thing that has really caught the fancy of patakha enthusiasts is the aerial crackers.Endorsing this fact, one of the biggest wholesalers of crackers in the city, Veeru Balani says, “Payali patakhas with 125, 120, 100 and 25 shots are very popular. These aerial crackers leave a beautiful trail of rainbow colours in the sky.”
Musical melange
Another variety of crackers that has captured people’s attention is musical crackers, informs, the secretary of Nagpur Fireworks Dealers Association, Ramesh Balani. He adds, “There are a lot of varieties in these musical crackers in the market. We have musical ladi, whistling rockets and musical chakris. Parents prefer to buy these for their kids, but most of the youngsters still opt for aerial crackers or the classic ladi bombs.”
Bollywood rocks
As usual, Bollywood divas are all over the patakha boxes. Their colourful pictures stuck on the covers of the cracker boxes attract children and youngsters, admits Veeru Balani. But he goes on to add, “The bigger brands, however, avoid the pictures of stars because they don’t want to get into a royalty mess. But most of the smaller, lesser priced brands still prefer to have these pictures on their phuljhadi and cracker boxes. Cartoons are another favourites splashed enthusiastically on the cracker boxes.”
Sivakasi magic
Interestingly, in the patakha horizon, the Chinese have not really been able to make a dent, shares Ramesh and goes on to add, “All the licence-holding patakha wholesalers are answerable to the explosive department of Nagpur. And none of us are selling Chinese crackers because it is illegal to do so. It is the products made in Sivakasi (Tamil Nadu) that rule the city. Their quality is far better than cheaper Chinese variants that are sold on the sly by a few unscrupulous retail vendors.”
Static sales
According to the secretary of the association, in the past five years, the overall sale of crackers has been static. “Due to increased awareness about the environment and messages on social media, the sale of the crackers has remained in the bracket of `8 crore to `10 crore in the past five years in Nagpur,” he says.
Royal restraint
Many traditional and old families of Nagpur have taken a lead in setting a trend of restrained celebration. A scion of royal family, Raje Pratapsingh Bhonsle shares, “My son Mahanaryaman Singh and nephew Rudraraghvendra Singh burst crackers, but we have instilled a sense of responsibility in them that only a small sum must be spent on these things. Instead, we prefer to distribute sweets and gifts to the less privileged, which gives us much more satisfaction. After the Laxmi Pujan, we all burst simple crackers like chakri, anaar and this tradition lives on. But there is no point blowing big amounts on crackers to add to the noise and sound pollution.”