East Meets West in a Weird Way

BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Oct 12, INDIA (SUN) — 'Hogwarts' pandal makers should have gotten permission from Warner Brothers.

In a strange blending of 'East Meets West', the organisers of a Kolkata Durga puja festival build a pandal display that incorporated the Harry Potter series as its theme. Warner Brothers, the Harry Potter copyright owner in India, was not happy with this arrangement, however, and said the festival organizers should have sought permission before using the copyrighted figures on their Hogwarts Castle pandal.

"Sadly, the organisers of this large-scale commercially sponsored event did not approach us for permission to go ahead," a Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. spokesman said in a statement issued yesterday in London.

"This event falls outside the guidelines set up by Warner Brothers, J.K. Rowling and her publishers to help charitable and not-for-profit organisations to run small-scale themed events that protect fans and allow everyone to enjoy Harry Potter books, films and events in the spirit in which they were created," Warner Bros added.

An Indian court on Friday refused to restrain Kolkata's Mondal Decorators from using idols modeled on characters from the "Harry Potter" series to decorate their puja pandal. Organisers of the puja, which was held at Salt Lake in Kolkata, said they felt the entertainment company was being mean-spirited by refusing to appreciate the spiritual mood and religious nature of the pandal installation.

"We created the structure to entertain people," Puja Committee Joint Secretary Subabrata Bhattacharjee was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph on Friday. Bhattacharjee said that for previous pandals, the group had replicated the Titanic.

Most westerners who embrace eastern spirituality would be likely to find mixing Harry Potter characters with a Vedic spiritual festival embarrassing, if not downright offensive. In India, however, such boisterous expressions of festival spirit are now typical fare. The 'Harry Potter Durga Puja pandal' surely highlights the difference between 'East meets West' and 'West meets East'.