New Delhi, Oct. 2 -- Think of a depiction of Durga Puja in any Hindi film in recent years, and it would be incomplete without the sindoor khela. Take, for instance, the climax of Kahaani (2012), starring Vidya Balan, which featured this ritual as a symbolic backdrop. Women clad in the traditional red-and-white saris could be seen smearing vermillion (sindoor) on each other as Balan's character, Vidya Bagchi, merged into the crowd. The scene was redolent with the collective power of the divine feminine as Bagchi eventually reappeared to vanquish her enemy. Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh shot the scene in the midst of sindoor khela in an actual Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata.

Filmmakers across Bengali and Hindi movie industries have held a long fasci...