I won’t share them with anyone,” he says. For actor-comedian Viraj Ghelani, known for Jawan (2023) and Govinda Naam Mera (2022), Navratri is a time when fame takes a back seat. He stops working after 6 pm, turns down lucrative offers and returns to the same garba grounds where he danced as a child, surrounded by friends who knew him long before he became a familiar face.
“These days are mine.
I go to the same ground, dance in the same circle with my friends, jostle with the crowd and live those days,” says the 36-year-old, who met his wife, baker Palak Khimavat, during the festival. Such is his attachment to the festival that he puts work on hold for the nine nights, regardless of the money on offer. “At that time, I forget that I am an actor or a known person. I don’t give a damn about all these things. Ghelani has no intention of trading his familiar dance circle for a VIP section. “Navratri is a celebration of the person I was and the person I am. It is an homage to the fact that you should never forget your roots. Those memories are closely tied to his childhood friend, director Oneel Prashant Karnik, with whom he would sell passes, play garba and head out for dinner. “Our childhood goal was that we should never become so famous that we stop playing garba during Navratri. Prashant and I used to sell passes together, have fun and go out for dinner at night.
I go back to my roots, to where I started celebrating Navratri and playing garba as a child,” he says. That is what I want to hold on to,” he says.
These garba days won’t come back for another year. Navratri also brings back memories of his father, who introduced him to Hakka noodles during their festival outings. “I lost my father two years ago, so every time I eat them during Navratri, I remember him.
He also visits NESCO in Goregaon and makes time for celebrations featuring singer Falguni Pathak. Despite fans approaching him for photographs, he ensures he returns to the dance floor. “I meet them, click pictures and then tell them I will be back in two minutes after finishing a dance. he continues the noodle tradition in his father’s memory Although Punjabi food and pav bhaji remain among his favourites. As for the song that best captures his garba persona, Ghelani is quick to name Pathak’s Pari Hu Main. “I am a princess. Whenever the song plays, I tell people to let me do my step and then I join them,” he ends with a laugh.
Everything is on pause for these 10 days,” he says. Because he used to feed them to me,” he shares, i make sure I have them at least once during the festival. Because i love attention and I love it when people do things for me, my wife also calls me that.
Even today, Ghelani returns to the grounds where he grew up celebrating the festival, including Kora Kendra in Borivali and a ground in Malad, where he joins his group.
