Festivities, reimagined

From drones holding diyas mid-air to rangolis that move, tradition meets theatricality at festival dos,

- Veenu Sandhu and Anushka Bhardwaj

On a cool Delhi evening, guests stepped onto a rooftop where hundreds of diyas floated—not on water, but suspended mid-air by silent drones. Below, a sprawling rangoli shimmered with crushed gemstones and flower petals, its temple pattern edged in soft LED accents that shifted color like the slow breath of dusk.

For Nikhil Kapoor, founder and CEO of Floodlightz Events, this is luxury—not extravagance for its own sake, but what he calls "intentionality." "When every element tells a story, when the décor whispers tradition and the details feel like poetry, that's when you've created something unforgettable," he says.

From rooftop mandalas formed by drones to gourmet prasad, such as saffron-infused motichoor laddoos with edible gold leaf, Kapoor's events invite guests not just to attend, but to inhabit the celebration.

Whether it's Diwali in Delhi, Dussehra in Pune, Durga Puja in Kolkata, or Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai, event planners agree on one thing: the soul must remain Indian, even if the stage feels global. And so, Shrih Festivals once staged a Ram Leela on floating rafts, encircled by diya-lit lotus ponds, with projection mapping and a live narrator in Sanskrit and English. "We've also synced fireworks to bhajan orchestras and created aarti with immersive surround sound," says Doris Agarwal, of Shrih Festivals. When one host asked for "Florence meets Varanasi," the planners realized it through Renaissance pillars, sari drapes, and Mughal floral ceilings.