This Durga Pujo, the streets of Kolkata have transformed into a colorful canvas infused with culture and history. In honor of 40 glorious years of Asian Paints Sharad Shamman (APSS), the city’s premier and best-known celebration of creativity during Durga Pujo, Asian Paints unveiled a significant project entitled “Cholte Cholte 40.” This transformative project converted 40 of Kolkata’s famous yellow taxis into works of art recognizing the evolution, culture and imagination of Pujo over the past four decades.
A Heartfelt Tribute to the Creativity of Kolkata
These taxis are more than just taxis, they have been reimagined by four contemporary artists, Bikramjit Paul, Meenakshi Sengupta, Sayan Mukherjee, and Srishti Guptaroy, each artist has captured a decade of Pujo; handmade community celebrations in the 1980s to multi-sensory, technologically advanced, and globally connected festivals of today. Each taxi is telling their own stories. They have painted exteriors that honour the traditional yellow layer and fitted interiors made with richly textured wallpapers, fabrics, and radiantly shiny Royale Glitz finishes, and of course, all cabs have the proper “Crown of Pujo.”
Together, these taxis form both an extraordinary archive and a living tribute, bringing 40 years of the documentary creative history of Kolkata back on the streets and in the hearts of the people. This is something more than just art: it’s a tribute to Pujo, to the collective imagination of a city, and to the long and enduring partnership that Asian Paints has enjoyed with the cultural creativity of Kolkata for the last 40 years.
The Legacy: The 40-Year Expedition of Sharad Shamman
Asian Paints Sharad Shamman was born in 1985 as a humble, perhaps revolutionary, newspaper advertisement that redefined Kolkata’s perception of Durga Pujo. For the first time, Pujo was recognized not only as an act of devotion, but of inspired creativity and design. The first awards recognized three committees in the Best Puja category, and helped foster one of Kolkata’s most coveted and, respected, Pujo awards.
The awards evolved over time, reflecting the growing complexity and scale of Pujo, adding categories such as Best Puja (Shrestho Pujo), Discovery of the Year (Bochorer Bismoy), and Best Artisan (Shrestho Protimashilpi). In addition to recognizing amazing craftsmanship and design, Sharad Shamman has produced a living archive recording Pujo’s format shift from being small intimate community celebrations to sprawling, multiple-themed spectacles.
The Yellow Taxi Connection
To celebrate this milestone, Asian Paints used another cultural symbol of Kolkata, the yellow taxi. The yellow taxi is much more than a mere mode of transportation. It has been present in people’s Pujo journeys to countless festive pandal-hopping trips, transportation for families, for artists and craftsmen loaded with straw and clay from Kumartuli, and for judges of Sharad Shamman zipping through congested neighborhood lanes alike.
As the city changes, the yellow taxi is gradually disappearing from the streets. By converting 40 yellow taxis into mobile cultural archives, Asian Paints has, in some sense, re-invented this emblem by paying tribute to it. Each yellow taxi represents one decade of the Sharad Shamman awards and became a series of traveling spectacle that is all at once nostalgic and contemporary.
Art and Immersion: Décor and Design Details
Within the taxis, we are able to reproduce the closeness of Pujo pujas with great care. The tone is set with carefully considered choices from Asian Paints’ Royale range, curtains and wallpapers, under-seat lights, UV highlights and the reflective Royale Glitz finishes. The wallpapers are from well-known collections, such as Paris, Calcutta by Sabyasachi, La Vie, Magnolia Home, and Heartland by Sabyasachi, and the Solace series. Fabric was selected from Asian Paints’ ranges of textiles to appeal to the respective decade’s mood and texture.
One of the unique things about the fusion of light, texture, and pattern, means that every taxi interior has its own authenticity, creating immersive spaces that invite the passenger into a different era of Pujo celebration.
Four Decades, Four Artists, Four Stories
Each taxi’s transformation features the distinct vision of its assigned contemporary artist, capturing the spirit of their decade:
1985–1995 (Bikramjit Paul):
Paul’s taxi reflects Pujo’s transformation from elite and limited celebrations to egalitarian Sarbojonin (community-wide) festivals. The tableau depicts wonderful nostalgic details, the first Sharad Shamman advertisement featuring the character Gattu, widely circulated radios and the cultural ephemera that once found a cherished place in this era.
1995–2005 (Meenakshi Sengupta):
Sengupta’s taxi encapsulates the social grandeur of this age, a theatrical tableau of Chandannagar lights, arches, frenetic flower markets, and food stalls. Transecting the Howrah Bridge with tram lines, the taxi captures collective fun, families joyfully darting across streets in excited anticipation; exceptional Bengali rock music diffusing this enthusiasm from the ever-flickering, neon Gods hanging above Gudiya’s exquisitely decorated pandal gates.
2005–2015 (Sayan Mukherjee):
Mukherjee’s taxi screams the period when Pujo became an experiential spectacle. Pandal themes reached new heights with corporate sponsorships. A striking image of the goddess holding the earth is ensconced by splendid Royale Glitz curtain-raisers, encapsulating all the grandeur and immersive splendour of the period.
2015–2025 (Srishti Guptaroy):
Today, Pujo exists in a multi-sensory, global and digital sensibility. Guptaroy’s taxi incorporates projection mapping, live concerts and myriad others, while at the same time, her work reclaims Bengal cultural icons, the tiger, owl, chai glasses and traditional alpona, with contemporary global precision.
Words From the Leaders
Speaking at the unveiling in the presence of Abir Chatterjee and Sauraseni Maitra, Amit Syngle, MD and CEO of Asian Paints Ltd., said,
“When Asian Paints Sharad Shamman began in 1985, it set out to honour the imagination of Pujo. Forty years later, it has become a living chronicle of Kolkata’s creative spirit. For us at Asian Paints, Kolkata has always been more than a city; it has been a muse, shaping our understanding of colour as culture and of homes as worlds of meaning. On this milestone year, the yellow taxi felt like the most fitting tribute. An everyday companion of Pujo that has carried families, artisans, and stories across the city. This is our ‘Royale Tribute to Kolkata’.”
A Project Building On a Legacy of Creative Archive
The taxi project comes out of an earlier project in 2023 where Asian Paints celebrated 150 years of the tramways in Kolkata when they turned a bogie on the Tollygunge, Ballygunge route into an “art tram.” The exteriors of the tram told the story of Sharad Shamman and the creators of Pujo, while the interiors brought together cane craft, alpona design, storytelling and Royale Glitz finishes, with augmented reality to take the experience beyond the physical tram into the realm of the digital.
With the taxis, Asian Paints Sharad Shamman translates this idea, that of the archive from rail to road, of the tram to the iconic yellow taxi. Both are disappearing aspects of Kolkata’s cityscape; in changing elements of daily life into living archives, Asian Paints is ensuring that memory, imagination and the stories of this city continue to be affirmed, visible and acknowledged for generations to come.
Honouring the Unsung Heroes
Rutva Trivedi, Design Director at XXL Collective, who led the design team, remarked,
“For us at XXL, the tram and now the yellow taxi projects for Asian Paints have been about extending the ethos of Sharad Shamman, celebrating creative excellence in Pujo and returning it to the city in new ways. But beyond the archive, this has also been an act of gratitude. We thank Asian Paints for their trust and custodianship, the four artists for their distinct visions, and every single person – from fabricators and carpenters to painters and installers – who made this possible. Above all, this project is also an homage to the yellow taxi drivers of Kolkata, who have carried generations through Pujo nights. In giving these taxis a second life as cultural carriers, we also honour their labour, their memory, and their place in the city’s story.”
Celebrating the True Spirit of Durga Pujo
For forty years, Asian Paints Sharad Shamman has acknowledged both the artistic ingenuity put into creating Pujo pandals and the dedicated efforts of all the artisans, sculptors and committees that put life to the creations year after year. The spirit lived by these individuals remains untainted to honour the tradition with richness, innovation and a deep rooted association to Kolkata city and its people.
About Asian Paints Limited
Asian Paints was established in 1942 and is India’s largest and Asia’s second-largest paint company with a consolidated turnover of ₹33,797 crores (₹338 billion). It operates in 14 countries with 26 manufacturing plants, and is continuing to elevate spaces and push beyond the boundaries of colour and design, to impact positively in the lives of millions across the globe. The company has pioneered numerous innovations across the paint and decor industry in India, including Colour Ideas, Beautiful Homes Painting Service, Colour Next and Asian Paints Beautiful Homes Stores.
Apart from decorative paints, Asian Paints has a diversified portfolio, which includes specialised paint and interior décor solutions for waterproofing, wood finishes, adhesives, modular kitchens, wardrobes, bath fittings, wall coverings, lighting, furniture, and much more.
