Curating Culture with Purpose: How Kestone UTSAV Is Redefining Large-Format Cultural Experiences
In an era where cultural showcases often prioritise scale over substance, Kestone UTSAV stands apart by approaching culture with clarity, discipline, and intent. Conceived as a platform to bring authenticity, craft, performance, and community into shared, experiential spaces, UTSAV has evolved into a thoughtfully designed cultural property. Backed by Kestone’s global event expertise, it brings the same rigour and excellence to cultural curation that is typically reserved for international formats. In this conversation, Nikhil Mahajan, Director at Kestone UTSAV, shares the vision behind the platform, its differentiated approach, and how it aims to contribute meaningfully to India’s cultural ecosystem in the years ahead.
1. Kestone UTSAV has positioned itself as a platform celebrating culture and community. What was the original vision behind its creation, and how has that vision evolved over time?
Kestone UTSAV was conceived to create large-format cultural experiences that are rooted in authenticity yet designed for scale. The original intent was to move culture out of silos and present it in a way that people could actively experience through craft, performance, food, and shared spaces. Over time, this vision has evolved into a structured platform that curates culture with the same rigour, planning, and design excellence typically reserved for global events. Today, UTSAV functions not just as an event, but as a carefully designed cultural experience with a clear identity and purpose.
2. In a crowded cultural events space, what differentiates Kestone UTSAV in terms of curation, scale, and execution?
What sets Kestone UTSAV apart is its ability to treat culture with precision and discipline. Curation is led by a clear narrative rather than volume, ensuring that every artisan, performance, and experience serves a defined purpose. At the same time, UTSAV benefits from Kestone’s proven expertise in delivering complex, large-scale events, destination weddings, and international celebrations across geographies. This combination allows UTSAV to maintain cultural depth while operating at a scale and quality benchmarked against global events.
3. How does Kestone UTSAV balance tradition with contemporary formats to stay relevant to today’s audiences, especially younger demographics?
Kestone UTSAV does not modernise culture by simplifying it; instead, it reframes how it is experienced. Traditional art forms and crafts are presented through contemporary spatial design, curated storytelling, and interactive formats that invite participation. Younger audiences engage with culture through experience, not instruction, and UTSAV is designed to create moments of discovery that feel intuitive and immersive while preserving the integrity of the tradition itself.
4. What role do partnerships and collaborations play in shaping each edition of Kestone UTSAV?
Partnerships determine the character of every UTSAV edition. Collaborating with regional artisans, cultural custodians, and local stakeholders ensures that each event reflects its geography rather than replicating a template. These collaborations inform everything from curation and programming to design and storytelling. For UTSAV, partnerships are not expansion tools—they are the foundation that keeps the platform culturally grounded and contextually relevant.
5. Looking ahead, what are Kestone UTSAV’s growth plans, and how do you see it contributing to India’s cultural ecosystem in the coming years?
The focus ahead is not rapid expansion, but intentional growth. Kestone UTSAV aims to build a portfolio of culturally distinct editions across key markets, each with its own identity and regional depth. The long-term objective is to establish UTSAV as a credible cultural property that creates sustained visibility and economic opportunity for artisans, while setting new benchmarks for how Indian culture is presented in large-format experiences—both within India and on global platforms.
