Pohela Boishakh 2025| Sayani Gupta recalls her FTII celebrations: We'd collect fund and get a Maharaj to cook
On Pohela Boishakh today, actor Sayani Gupta talks about the day's significance as she reminisces her days of celebrating Bengali New Year in FTII
Sayani Gupta is currently embroiled in work and shooting, but she is excited to start the Bengali new year on Pohela Boishakh today. “It's the beginning of the New Year and it has always had a nostalgic significance with friends and family. Over the years, we have celebrated it in different ways,” she shares.
Sharing one of her most memorable celebrations, Sayani Gupta recalls her college days in Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). “In FTII, we used to have a big feast on Pohela Boishakh, where we would collect a lot of funds and get a maharaj to cook. We used to do the prep ourselves and I remember washing kilos of fish and getting my hand cut with the bones. Then the final day used to come and we’d be serving food, and by the time you sit to eat, it's late and you’re too tired to eat. But the whole campus used to be excited to just eat yummy food on the day. For Bengalis, pretty much everything is around food,” she quips.
While Sayani doesn’t have any personal tradition for the day, she does follow one ritual set by her mother. “One of the things that my mum still makes sure that I do is wear something new. Even this year, she has sent me something new to wear. It’s the first day of the year, so you have to eat something good and wear something new. Those little things make for the perfect family celebration,” she says, adding that it’s the togetherness on such festivals that makes them special. “Any celebration, especially in India, is around people. It doesn’t matter whether you belong to that particular culture or not, yet it becomes a community sort of experience around any festivity, be it Pohela Boishakh, Eid, Durgo Pujo or any other festival. It's about getting people together and sharing the joy,” she insists.
As she mentions the importance of food in the celebration, she points out, “On Sankranti, which comes by April 14, that's the time when there's a lot of peethe and paish that gets made. It's that specific food that your mother or your neighbour aunty will make. So, having something nice and eat a lot of deserts and a lot of non-veg makes a celebration.”
Even though she is shooting currently, and won’t have time to do anything extravagant, she does have a small celebration in mind. “I am shooting every day, so there is no special celebration, but I will try and eat something nice and get something nice for my crew and the people I'm shooting with,” she ends.
