5-kg Ganesh laddu fetches ₹1.01 crore at Hyderabad’s Keerthi Richmond Villas, funds to support charity

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A 5-kg Ganesh laddu at Keerthi Richmond Villas in Hyderabad’s Bandlaguda Jagir fetched ₹1.01 crore at an auction this year, with a group of villa owners coming together to bid for and purchase the laddu. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A 5-kg Ganesh laddu at Keerthi Richmond Villas in Hyderabad’s Bandlaguda Jagir fetched ₹1.01 crore at an auction this year, with a group of villa owners coming together to bid for and purchase the laddu.

The auction was held two days earlier than the usual final day of Ganesh Chaturthi this year. The auction amount this year was lower than the ₹2.32 crore fetched by the laddu at the same community in 2025, when the laddu weighed 10 kg.

The proceeds from this year’s auction, like always, will be donated to the RV Diya Charitable Trust, which uses the funds for a range of charitable activities. According to a representative of the trust, the auction is designed as a collective fundraising exercise, with residents forming groups and bidding against one another, rather than the entire exercise being centred on an individual buyer. What began with a ₹25,000 bid in 2016 has grown into a multi-crore fundraising initiative.

The trust said the entire amount raised through the auction is used for charitable programmes, with no administrative fee deducted from the contributions. According to data shared by the trust, it spent ₹1.66 crore on various programmes during 2025-26. These included support for more than 750 students and children, assistance to over 150 patients, training for more than 300 people, daily outreach reaching over 1,500 people and support for more than 100 animals.

The trust also supports old-age homes, contributes towards school fees and works with around 60 NGOs as part of its charitable initiatives. “The larger objective is to encourage more residential communities across Hyderabad to turn their own festive traditions into sustained fundraising initiatives, allowing residents to collectively contribute towards social causes,” the representative added.

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