Kolkata: For the first time, the Durga Puja festival of Kolkata is entering Metaverse, a virtual reality 3D environment created by Meta.
This year, entry is free and will be open on Thursday.
Users can create meta-realistic avatars and voice chat with others. The platform can be accessed by smartphones, tablets, wearables, and VR headsets.
People can virtually tour four big-ticket community pujas and click photos. Users will be able to enter two north Kolkata puja pandals - Ahiritola Sarbojanin and Tallah Prattoy - besides two from the southern part of the city - Deshapriya Park and Ballygunge Cultural Association.
The 3D platform created for this purpose, xpand-land.com, will allow visitors to enter a shared social space. Users will encounter people from all over the world on the platform. This is a joint effort by Indian start-up XP&D, its group company Metaform, and another firm, Spatial.
XP&D Co-founder Sukrit Singh said this is the first time in history a massive festival of devotion is being twinned on Metaverse. "In the near future, every single pandal on the ground will have a metaverse twin for people to experience and enjoy," he added. They are aiming to work with over 100 pandals next year.
Suveer Bajaj, the co-founder of Metaform, said the project will also help popularise the new Web 3.0-based technologies like blockchain, virtual reality, and NFTs. "This year, we are keeping it free from charges but monetisation will happen from the next puja."