Durga Puja makes its mark in the metaverse
Durga Puja has entered the virtual world of metaverse too. Wherever in the world you are, you can now put on your VR headsets and using the handheld remote, navigate your way through four Durga Pujas in Kolkata—Deshapriya Park Durgotsav, Ballygunge Cultural, Tala Prottoy and Ahiritola Sarbojanin. The first two are in north Kolkata and the other two are in the south.
The experience, accessible through the website, https://www.xpand-land.com from Thursday, has been aptly named ‘MetaPujo’.
However, those who do not have the costly VR headsets need not despair. A laptop, tablet or mobile phone would be enough—the experience would not be truly virtual but would be a completely different experience, assure the makers.
The project is a joint venture of XP&D, a Gurugram-based new-age digital event platform, its group company Metaform, an experiential and community management platform and Spatial, an augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) collaboration platform.
This year being the first, there will be no entry fee but from next year, the companies plan to monetise the experience, said Suveer Bajaj, co-founder of Metaform. The monetisation will help not only the companies but also the puja organisers.
On MetaPujo, one can move virtually inside the pandal. Other visitors can be spotted and interacted with too, if they wish to make themselves visible, a feature, said Bajaj, which will allow virtual pandal-hopping with family and friends.
