Virtual viewing: 4 Puja pandals in Kolkata to have Metaverse twins

KOLKATA: In a first, four Durga Puja pandals in the city will have their metaverse twins available for virtual viewing. The metaverse twins of the pandals can be accessed in real time for a walk-through by a visitor's metaverse avatar. These pandals are of Ahiritola Sarbojanin, Deshapriya Park, Ballygunge Cultural Association and Tallah Prattoy. In a bid to revolutionise the online viewing experience, Metaform and XP&DLand announced MetaPujo for Kolkata.

Elaborating on the experience, Sukrit Singh, Co-Founder, Metaform & XP&DLand, said: "After the huge recognition by UNESCO, this is another great 'hurrah' for the Puja. We have been inspired to bridge the gap between devotion and technology, and what better way to begin than by hinging on one of the world's largest devotional celebrations? This initiative gives Maa Durga an enhanced address on Web 3.0 where the devotees, from across the world, will be able to enter a three-dimensional recreation of the pandals and take part in darshans from the most popular pandals of Kolkata. While doing so, attendees would be able to claim four non-fungible tokens (NFT) stored on blockchain, a digital ledger, of her idols that have been designed especially for the occasion, each correlating to one of the pandals."

The NFTs will be free this year. But, in future—as per reports—the tokens may have real-life benefits and become an additional source of revenue for organisers.

Outlining the vision further, Sukrit Singh said: "The worlds of digital and real life are colliding, where we will constantly toggle between the real and metaverse worlds in the future. This is the first time in history that such a massive festival of devotion has been twinned in the Metaverse. Metaform and XP&DLand's plan centres around 3D recreations of the pandals, where users in 'Spatial', a metaverse platform, can enter a shared social space where people from across the world can come together and walk around, interact, and even take photographs." "Users can make a meta-realistic avatar of themselves in minutes. The platform is accessible to all through simple smart phones, tablets, and wearables," she explained.