Siddhi Vinayak Ganpati, the final destination of Stars

Rupak Priyank - Televisionpoint.com
Stars shine bright these days in Mumbai, on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Outside the Siddhi Vinayak Ganpati temple in Prabhadevi, thousands of devotees await their turn in queues which stretch for miles, all of them who come come to offer prayers, and catch a glimpse of their Idol, Ganpati Bappa.

Siddhi Vinayak is known as Navasacha Ganapati or Navasala Pavanara Ganapati, Ganapati bestows, whenever humbly and genuinely prayed to, a wish among devotees.

A large number of Bollywood, Television celebrities and politicians come for darshan, Nana Patekar, Jeetendra Kapoor are the famous one's who visit the temple. Unbelievably, people and celebrities come bare legs, walking several kilometers for just one glance of the holy darshan. Ektaa Kapoor from her house in Juhu visits the temple in Andheri by walking. Ektaa Kapoor says that her luck has completely changed after she started visiting Siddhi Vinayak.

So says Ektaa Kapoor, Creative Head, Balaji Telefilms, "I firmly believe that Siddhi Vinayak exists and I happen to be at this temple from the past 10 years. I like to visit religious places all the time especially this and one at Tirupati. Believing in God is a personal thing, I don't think anyone can impose religion on anybody. There are different religions in the world but God is one and exists everywhere."

Bachchans also walk about 10 kilometers in the drizzle from their Juhu bungalow to the Siddhi Vinayak temple. In 1982, it was the same place that Jaya Bachchan had prayed for the recovery of her husband when he had been seriously injured during the shooting of the film Coolie.

Union Minister for Railways, Laloo Prasad Yadav, when visited the last time came here, he gave alms to over 25,000 beggars outside the temple. All the devotees, know that all they need to do to get a glimpse of their lord is to line up at dawn, when the gods comes down the earth for darshan.

Subhash Ghai, Madhur Bhandarkar, Jackie Shroff, Vivek Oberoi, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Jeetendra, Shilpa Shetty, Boney Kapoor, Kajol and Ajay Devgan, Twinkle Khanna, Rakesh Roshan, Subhash Chandra, Prannoy Roy, Aroon Purie, Ektaa Kapoor are among the regular visitors to the temple.

Recently, MR Subhash Mayekar, Chairman, Siddhi Vinayak Ganpati Temple Trust, said, "We have more than 60 percent of Bollywood people coming here as devotees. A lot of them are regulars." On the Donation card system, Mr Mayekar says, "We have two types of cards. The gold card member is one who donates more than RS 7 lakhs and silver card donor is one who donates more than RS 2 and a half lakhs." Other than donations, Siddhi Vinayak temple makes an average of RS 1 crore monthly from the money offered by the people who visit the temple.

Ektaa Kapoor, a gold card member, had once rolled all the way to the temple when her mannat for Balaji Telefilms success was fulfilled. Though sources refutes this and say, "Ektaa has never rolled her way to the temple, it's physically impossible. She walks to Siddhi Vinayak temple regularly with her friends."

Aishwarya comes to the temple every year on November 1, her birthday. For the past two years she has been seen coming here with Vivek Oberoi. Commenting on Aishwarya Rai's visit, a temple administration said, "Aishwarya Rai had specifically called us up requesting that media not be informed about her visit. That seemed ok, but when she came she had got her media entourage with her. What was the big issue then? Why were we told to keep her visit a secret? Now the entire media fraternity is angry with us."

Devotees start arriving as early as 2 am and continue till late in the evening. Often they have to wait for six to eight hours at a stretch. On special occasions like Ganesh Jayanti and Vinayaki Chaturthi, the number of devotees add up to four lakhs a day. For some Bollywood celebrities the temple has become a public relations exercise, with the media being informed beforehand about their visits.