Last year’s Durga idol at Badamtala Ashar Sangha. A Telegraph picture

Organised marketing of the annual worship of Durga has begun with a Bengali-owned American company buying the rights to a Calcutta puja that will have Mithun Chakraborty as its brand ambassador.

Every rupee spent on Badamtala Ashar Sangha Puja at Chetla this year will come from the coffers of Media Morphosis, owned by New York-based Adris Chakrabarty. The company will market the event to recover its investment.

The company’s Indian subsidiary, Mumbai-based Manhattan Communications, will start a publicity campaign to attract sponsors in the run-up to the autumn festival. And MLA Fatakeshto Mithun will be the ticket to more eyeballs. On Friday, the actor turned up for the first promotional shoot in Mumbai.

“This is an effort to marry creativity with commerce on a corporate platform. Puja in Calcutta showcases wonderful artistic innovations and we are happy to play a supporting role,” Gautam Majumder, a senior official of the company, told Metro.

“The club has been branding its Puja cheap and we want to scale it up,” he added.

First up would be an SMS contest titled Experience Badamtala with prizes galore to select a theme for this edition of the south Calcutta club’s Puja.

Mridul Pathak, one of the patrons of the Puja, sold the idea of a tie-up to Chakrabarty during a trip to New York earlier this year.

“We tried to impress upon the company that we brought to life some unique themes and won accolades over the past few years without spending crores. Last year, we won eight awards,” said Suvajit Sarkar, the convener of the puja.

A team of company officials, led by Chakrabarty, visited Calcutta in March and held a discussion with the club’s members on Dol Jatra. The deal was signed soon after.