1. &ldquo;Once Upon India&rdquo; is such an evocative name. What was the spark that led to its creation - and what story are you ultimately trying to tell through it?
Once Upon India began with the intention of making Indian culture feel personal again, not like something kept in museums, but something alive and emotionally present in our lives.
If you look at our logo, it carries that idea, the stamp stands for movement and discovery and the gateway is a window into India&rsquo;s music, poetry and stories. Together, they reflect our belief that culture is a journey, not a destination.
There&rsquo;s a phrase we hold close: &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t know where you&rsquo;re going until you know where you came from.&rdquo; That sits at the heart of what we do.
We&rsquo;re not here to present culture as grand or distant. We&rsquo;re here to make it relatable - through simple, soulful experiences that help people reconnect with where they come from.
2. With Punjabi Mehfil, you're bringing folk music into an urban, theatrical space like the Royal Opera House. How do you balance tradition with setting and was that tension intentional?
Honestly, we don&rsquo;t look at it as urban versus folk, or traditional versus modern. For us, it&rsquo;s always been about creating great experiences and for that, you need the right backdrop. The Royal Opera House is iconic. It has history, character and presence. We couldn&rsquo;t think of a better stage to bring Once Upon India to Mumbai.
Music is the heart of what we do but it&rsquo;s also about stories and settings. The Royal Opera House itself is a story, and so is Once Upon India. Bringing the two together felt magical. We weren&rsquo;t trying to create a contrast between folk and theatre,we were simply trying to find a space that could hold the emotion and depth of what we were presenting.
3. What drew you specifically to Punjabi folk for this first Mumbai edition? Was it personal, cultural or thematic and how did you curate this lineup of generational artists?
It was all three, personal, cultural and thematic.
All three of us, the co-founders have lived and worked in Bombay. The city holds a special place in our journey, and after Delhi, it felt like the natural next step. Bombay has always been welcoming, a stage for voices from across the country and the world. We knew we had to bring Once Upon India here.
Being such a cosmopolitan city, Bombay already offers many avenues to experience regional cultures like Marathi or Gujarati folk music. But we noticed there weren&rsquo;t enough spaces dedicated to Punjabi folk, especially the kind that goes beyond the loud beats. Punjabi folk is deep, layered, lyrical and incredibly soulful. We wanted to bring that real face of Punjabi music to the city.
Our curation reflects that. This Mehfil is a tribute to two of the most iconic names in Punjabi folk, SurinderKaur and YamlaJatt. People who love Punjabi folk have grown up listening to their music, and we felt it was time to honour them in a format that does justice to their legacy.
And to bring it all together with charm and relatability, we have HargunKaurwho binds the performance. This isn&rsquo;t just a concert. It&rsquo;s an experience, one that&rsquo;s rooted in memory, melody, and meaning.
4. This isn&rsquo;t just a performance,you&rsquo;ve described it as a &lsquo;living archive&rsquo;. Can you elaborate on what that means, and how it shapes the audience experience?
Absolutely. We&rsquo;ve never looked at our Mehfils as performances. We always tell our guests, Once Upon India isn&rsquo;t entertainment. It&rsquo;s a slice of life. It&rsquo;s culture, music and memory coming together in a format that feels deeply personal.
When we say living archive, we mean that quite literally. So many people have grown up listening to legends like SurinderKaur and YamlaJattbut how many have actually heard their stories? What moved them? What inspired their songs? What was their journey like,from Lahore to India, from radio stations to folk stages?
In this Mehfil, we share those stories. There&rsquo;s one about the instrument Tumbi and how YamlaJattmade it iconic. Or the way Surinder treated her songs not just as performances, but as a form of worship.
And then there are discoveries we didn&rsquo;t see coming, like when we found out during rehearsals that AmitYamla, the grandson of YamlaJattji, plays four traditional instruments. The sounds he creates are magical, transporting you instantly to another time. That&rsquo;s the beauty of this Mehfil: a lot will quietly unfold, and a lot will stay with you long after the evening ends.
5. Many cultural initiatives focus on spectacle, but OUI is deliberately intimate and immersive. Why was that format important to you?
Because in a world full of instant everything, instant content, instant gratification, instant entertainment, we wanted to create something that felt like a pause.
With Once Upon India, we&rsquo;ve never aimed for anything shiny or loud. Our intention has always been simple: to create something soulful, something that lingers. When you walk into a Mehfil, it&rsquo;s not just about the music, it&rsquo;s about the artist, how personal the stories feel, and how the entire experience makes you feel something real.
Spectacle may wow you in the moment but we wanted people to take back memories, not just moments. We wanted to create evenings that feel calm, thoughtful, and gently powerful,something that takes you back in time, or leaves you with something to hold onto.
Immersive, for us, means unhurried. It means present. It means giving people the space to actually feelwhether it&rsquo;s a song, a story, or the silence in between.
6. You each bring unique backgrounds, from classical music and storytelling to performance and strategy. How do your individual sensibilities come together in the curation of a Mehfil?
The three of us are very different in how we think and that&rsquo;s exactly what makes this work.
Shiva brings the grandeur, he ensures the sound, the light, the seating, and every small operational detail is flawless. He makes sure that every evening looks and feels seamless.
Arpita brings the heart, she&rsquo;s the storyteller. From her travels to the tales passed down by her grandmother, she weaves in the kind of stories that make you pause and feel. She also keeps the experiences rooted, simple, soulful, and deeply Indian.
Malini is the method to our madness. Her aesthetic eye, her deep understanding of music and her ability to bring calm to the chaos ensures that everything comes together in the most meaningful way.
What binds us is our shared love, for stories, for music and for India. Together, we&rsquo;re just trying to create experiences that are thoughtful, beautiful, and honest, something people remember not just for the artist on stage, but for the feeling it left them with.
7. What&rsquo;s something surprising or deeply emotional that emerged during the preparation of Punjabi Mehfil? A rehearsal moment, an artist anecdote, or even audience feedback from your earlier shows?
What truly stood out during the preparation of this Punjabi Mehfil were the stories of the legends we&rsquo;re paying tribute to, SurinderKaur and YamlaJatt.
At the Mehfil, the audience will hear about their journeys, what made them the legends they are, how they thought about music, and the ways they shaped Punjabi folk for generations to come.
What also surprised us and continues to surprise audiences, is how different this Punjabi Mehfil feels from what one might expect. It&rsquo;s not loud or flashy. It&rsquo;s intimate, rooted, and deeply emotional. The music takes you back to the lanes of Punjab - to the songs your grandmother may have hummed, to the stories of partition, to the forgotten lullabies of the land. It&rsquo;s quiet and powerful at the same time.
8. We&rsquo;re in an era of fast content and fleeting trends, why do you believe slow, soulful, story-led experiences like OUI are resonating so deeply today?
Because in a world where everyone&rsquo;s running, people are craving spaces where they can simply pause.
There&rsquo;s something quietly powerful about sitting down, being away from speed, and listening to music that moves you with people who feel the same way. Our audiences often tell us they didn&rsquo;t realize how much they needed that pause, that stillness.
Once Upon India offers something slow and soulful and people are resonating with that. It&rsquo;s not about instant gratification. There&rsquo;s no rush. You listen. You reflect. You share stories. You meet like-minded people. And you leave with memories that feel personal and lasting.
In a time when everything feels fleeting, we&rsquo;re just offering a chance to feel something real.
9. You&rsquo;ve previously hosted intimate cultural evenings in other cities. What made you choose Mumbai now and what do you hope the city takes away from this first edition?
Over the past year, we&rsquo;ve hosted over 40 Baithaks and 6Mehfils across Delhi and NCR, so it felt like the right time to take Once Upon India to another city. And Bombay had to be next.
All three of us, the co-founders have our own Bombay story. We&rsquo;ve lived here, worked here. This city has always felt personal. But beyond that, Bombay is a true test. It&rsquo;s the mirror. If something works here, you know it really works. The audience is evolved, open, and deeply honest. And that&rsquo;s exactly why we were both excited and nervous to bring this Mehfil here.
We&rsquo;ve had a wonderful response so far. Of the four ticket categories, two are already sold out. It&rsquo;s slowly building up and we&rsquo;re grateful that Bombay is showing up for us in such a heartening way.
We just hope that the city walks away from this first edition with full hearts, with stories, songs, and a sense of something that felt timeless and real.
10. Looking ahead, how do you see Once Upon India evolving? Will we see more regional revivals, cross-genre experiments or perhaps even youth-focused adaptations?
There is so much we want to do and we&rsquo;re just getting started.
Yes, you&rsquo;ll definitely see more regional revivals and cross-genre experiments. We&rsquo;re currently working on formats that are designed especially for Gen Z, experiences that feel fresh, immersive, and emotionally resonant, while still rooted in India&rsquo;s story.
But beyond that, we want to explore even more: cultural walks, food trails, storytelling nights, poetry circles, anything that brings people closer to the India that often gets missed in the noise.
India is a verb,it&rsquo;s alive, evolving, and filled with magic. The stories are endless. The people are incredible. There are layers waiting to be unfolded. And we just want to keep discovering, curating, and sharing them, one soulful experience at a time.

Once Upon India brings a soulful Punjabi Mehfil to Mumbai’s Royal Opera House, honouring legends like Surinder Kaur & Yamla Jatt.

Once Upon India Comes to Mumbai: A Conversation with Founder Arpita Sharma

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Once Upon India Comes to Mumbai: A Conversation with Founder Arpita Sharma

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