Asian Paints Sharad Shamman () is an excellence award given to the best decorated Durga Puja Pandal in Kolkata during the festival in October. Since its inception in 1985, Asian Paints Sharad Shamman has been heralded as the true achievement for excellence in decorating the abodes for Goddess Durga. As time has progressed there have been numerous awards being given by many other companies for creative excellence, but still Asian Paints Sharad Shamman is considered the most important award and the rightful judgement for excellence. It is a trendsetter for all the later awards.
About the Award
"Asian Paints Sharad Shamman" was started in 1985 as a means for awarding the best decorated puja pandal during Durga Puja in Kolkata. Sharad means "Autumn (as the festival takes place at that season)" and Shamman means "Award/Respect", and was sponsored by Asian Paints, hence the name Asian Paints Sharad Shamman. Out of about 3000 puja pandals in Kolkata, few get shortlisted and among them six are given the awards.
Award Categories
Total six awards are given to six puja pandals. When Sharad Shamman started in 1985 only three awards were given to three Best Puja pandals. From 1994 a special award called "Discovery of the Year" was introduced to honour a completely unknown pandal for its excellence. This four categories were continued for the next six years. But in 2000 Asian Paints felt the awards were too similar, there was no demarcation to identify Best Decoration of the pandal or the Best looking Idol. Hence in 2000 two new categories were introduced - "Creative Excellence (Nobbo Nakshi)", which focussed on the Best decorated Pandal, and "Best Artisan", given to the artist of the Best looking Idol. In 2010, the "Creative Excellence" was renamed to "Innovative Excellence" and it was continued for five years. Although in 2015, the Asian Paints committee didn't pick any puja for "Innovative Excellence" but the number of awards remained unaltered by introducing one more puja in "Discovery of the year" category. Keeping in mind the large growth and globalization in Kolkata Durga Puja, Asian Paints committee introduced another special award namely "Special Jury Award" on overall excellence. At present these seven categories (three for Best Pujas, two for Discovery of the year, one for Best Artisan and one for Special Award) represent Asian Paints Sharad Shamman. Some of the parameters for awarding the pandals include the overall beauty and grandeur of a pandal based on a chosen theme, the beauty of the Durga protima, how well the sanctum of the protima has been shown, and the finesse in the work done on the pandal. In 2020, due to nationwide COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian Paints Sharad Shamman judges didn't make a physical appearance on the participating pandels, the whole process had been successfully organised online by the APSS committee.
Best Puja (Shrestho Pujo) years active (1985–present)
This award was the first award given when APSS started in 1985. Three puja pandals are selected based on everything, i.e., Decorative excellence, best looking idol, ambiance, lighting etc. No demarcations are there like winner, first runner-up: instead all three pujas are considered to be the Best Puja. Normally winners in these category used to be the well-known Pujas, but nowadays many unknown Pujas have cropped up with the technical excellence to bag this award. At present, Durga Pujas in Kolkata are more theme oriented. Some specific theme like Madhubani art or earthen cups or a place like Kerala, will be the base for the decoration. In 2001, "Bosepukur Sitalamandir" decorated its pandal completely of earthen cups and was so popular that it won the Best Puja award hands down. There have been many Pujas which has won this award many times. "Adi Ballygunge" leads the list with five wins. A puja, once been declared a winner in this list cannot be declared in the "Discovery of the Year" award though it can win "Creative Excellence" or "Best Artisan" award.
Among the asian paints sharad samman winners (see the above list "Most wins") "Laketown Natunpally Pradeep Sangha" is the first puja committee who had win the prestigious durga puja award (Best Puja or, Shrestho Pujo) for consecutive three years (2006, 2007 and 2008) for the first time in North Kolkata and for the second time in Kolkata after Adi Ballygunge. In 2019, another puja from North Kolkata namely "Talapark Pratyay" also achieved this unique record after "Natunpally Pradeep Sangha". Till date "Suruchi Sangha", "Naktala Udayan Sangha" and "Behala Natun Dal" had also achieved the award for three consecutive years.