VMPL
Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India]/Dubai [UAE], August 21: At a time when younger audiences are often believed to be moving away from traditional Indian art forms, a group of musicians in their 20s and 30s is attempting to turn that narrative around.
The Pitaara Company, an Indore-founded artist management and event curation platform, took this idea to an international stage with "Chitthi Aayi Hai - Echoes from the Homeland," a three-day festival held in Dubai from 14-15-16 August 2026, during India's Independence Day weekend.
Designed especially around the emotions of Indians and South Asians living away from home, the festival brought together 12 curated shows across four traditional art forms -- Dastaangoi, Devotional Bhajan music, Ghazal and Qawwali/Sufi music.
Rather than presenting these traditions as nostalgia alone, Pitaara reinterpreted them through young performers, contemporary narratives and immersive formats that encouraged audiences to participate, sing along and rediscover music they may have grown up hearing at home.
Traditional instruments were equally central to the experience. Pakhawaj, dholak, damru and other Indian percussion instruments were woven into the performances, with lively jugalbandis between instruments becoming audience favourites. The three days also saw collaborations across artists and communities, creating strong buzz among Indian and wider South Asian audiences as Dubai welcomed the festival with open hearts.
From fading traditions to contemporary experiences
The festival opened a window into Dastaangoi, the centuries-old oral storytelling tradition, through storyteller and actor Sikandar Khan, who brought raw, voice-led storytelling back before a contemporary audience.
The devotional segment, led by Amrut Kotasthane, reimagined Bhajans through an immersive Bhajan Jamming experience infused with elements of Haveli Sangeet. The format moved away from the conventional stage-and-audience divide, inviting listeners to participate, sing and experience devotional music collectively.
The Ghazal segment, featuring Aman Hora and Khyati Pandya, revisited the works and musical legacy of icons including Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh. The festival also introduced its experiential Ghazal-Sufi Jamming format in Dubai, turning a genre often associated with quiet listening into an intimate, interactive and sing-along mehfil.
Qawwali and Sufi traditions formed the fourth pillar of the festival. Aftab Qadri and Amil Sabri presented a special tribute to the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on August 16, his death anniversary, while the three-day programming also explored the poetry, philosophy and musical traditions associated with Amir Khusro and Kabir, alongside the rich legacy of traditional Qawwali.
When a festival became a homecoming
The name Chitthi Aayi Hai was chosen to evoke perhaps one of the most universal emotions among people living away from their homeland -- the longing for home. That emotion became the thread connecting the three days.
The festival drew Indians as well other South Asian expatriates in Dubai, demonstrating how shared music, poetry and storytelling can travel beyond geographical and national boundaries. Several audience members returned across the festival and experienced multiple programmes, with some choosing to attend all 12 curated experiences.
Shikha Jain, Founder, The Pitaara Company, said, "Chitthi Aayi Hai was never meant to be just a series of performances. We wanted to create a room where, for a few hours, people living thousands of kilometres away could feel closer to home. What moved us most was seeing people singing the same Ghazals, responding to the same stories and becoming emotional over music they had grown up with. Culture has an extraordinary ability to remind us where we come from." She added, "There is also a misconception that traditional art forms belong to an older generation. Our musicians are largely in their 20s and 30s. They are not abandoning tradition; they are finding a new language in which to carry it forward. That is at the heart of what Pitaara wants to build."
Vigya Patni, Co-founder, The Pitaara Company, said, "There is extraordinary talent in cities beyond India's traditional entertainment hubs, but talent alone does not always create opportunity. It needs grooming, positioning, collaboration and the right platform. Over the last two years, our effort has been to work closely with artists, understand what makes each of them distinctive and build experiences around them. Taking this largely Indore-led ensemble to Dubai and seeing the response has strengthened our belief that local talent can absolutely command a global stage."
From Indore to an international stage
The Dubai festival also marked an important milestone for The Pitaara Company, which has spent the last two years identifying, grooming and creating platforms for emerging and independent performers and curating multiple shows.
Fifteen artists and musicians travelling for the festival were from Indore, with 2 performers also joining from Jodhpur and Delhi. The collaboration brought together artists from different musical disciplines to create productions specifically curated for the Dubai audience.
For Pitaara, the objective goes beyond artist management. The company works on building performers' identities, curating distinctive formats around their strengths and creating opportunities for regional talent to perform before wider national and international audiences.
Making tradition relevant, not merely preserving it
The larger philosophy behind The Pitaara Company is to revive Indian cultural and musical traditions without turning them into museum pieces.
From Dastaangoi and Haveli Sangeet to Ghazal and Qawwali, its approach is to retain the authenticity and emotional depth of these forms while changing the way they are presented to younger and contemporary audiences.
The Dubai edition of Chitthi Aayi Hai was supported by the city's media, cultural community and hospitality ecosystem, whose support helped an Indore-origin cultural initiative reach a diverse international audience.
For Pitaara, the enthusiastic response has opened the possibility of taking its curated Indian cultural formats to more cities and diaspora communities internationally.
As Jain puts it, "We don't want the next generation to know these traditions only through archives or stories about what once existed. We want them to perform them, reinterpret them, sit in a room together and experience them. If a 25-year-old musician can make another 25-year-old fall in love with a Ghazal, a Bhajan, a Qawwali or a centuries-old story, the tradition isn't fading anymore. It is living again."
About The Pitaara Company
Founded by Shikha Jain and co-founded by Vigya Patni, The Pitaara Company is an Indore (India) based artist curation and cultural experience platform focused on discovering, grooming and showcasing emerging talent while creating contemporary experiences rooted in India's music, storytelling and cultural traditions. Through curated productions, artist development and live experiences, the company aims to give traditional and culturally rooted art forms a new voice for today's audiences in India and internationally.
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