Robb Report India marked its first anniversary in Udaipur with Chapter One: The Circle of Influence, a two-day celebration at Fairmont Udaipur Palace. Guests experienced rare Jal Sanjhi art, a curated feast, and an RR Circle session. The evening featured a Kajol–Avarna Jain fireside chat on evolving luxury, a Macallan tasting, and performances by Jasleen Royal and DJ Aqueel.
One year after its September 2025 launch, Robb Report India returned to Udaipur—the city where its first event was held—to mark its first anniversary with Chapter One: The Circle of Influence. Two days at Fairmont Udaipur Palace on the banks of Lake Pichola: a gathering built around the people who have been part of the journey, and the ones who will shape what comes next.
The morning of August 23 began with the guests arriving and gathering in the lobby, with a live flute performance setting the tone as guests came in. Samarth Bajaj and Miheeka Daggubati, founders of Boheim, were among the first to arrive. Cricketer Suresh Raina and his wife Priyanka Chaudhary arrived as the afternoon began.
Alongside the arrivals, the lobby held something most guests had never encountered before. Jal Sanjhi is a devotional art form from Mathura and Vrindavan—from the heartland of Krishna worship in the Braj region—in which intricate compositions drawn from scenes of Krishna's life are created directly on the surface of still water using coloured powders, flower petals, and fine perforated stencils. The tradition is associated with the Sanjhi festival of the Pitru Paksha fortnight; the images are offerings rather than displays, immersed in the water at the ritual's completion. It has remained within a small number of families and temple priests from Mathura and Vrindavan for centuries, some tracing their practice back 500 years, which makes it one of the harder things to encounter outside the Braj region. Guests were invited to watch and engage with the process up close—a rare encounter with a living tradition that most of India has never seen.
Guests moved to Dastaan, Fairmont Udaipur Palace's all-day dining space, for a lunch specially curated by the hotel's culinary team—a lavish feast that set the tone for the celebrations ahead.
Before the evening's formal proceedings, RR Circle members gathered at The Alchemist—Fairmont Udaipur Palace's bar—for the Circle session. The meeting brought together the incoming 2026–2027 members alongside returning ones for a conversation as much about what Robb Report India has become in its first year as about what the Circle is being built to do. The new members for 2026–2027 are Miheeka Daggubati; Sanya and Varun Jain; Aditi and Aditya Dugar; Gautam Seth and Prateek Jain; Shaswat and Shiveeka Goenka; Ashiesh Shah; Aashica Khanna; Kulsum Shadab Wahab; Tarang and Akanksha Arora; Rahul and Divya Mishra; and Avarna Jain, Chairperson of Robb Report India.
The main programme opened in The Imperial Ballroom with cocktails before proceedings formally began. Aindrila Mitra, Editor of Robb Report India and Manifest India, delivered the welcome address—marking one year of the title and speaking about the guests who had made the journey what it was. A Robb Report clip followed: 365 days of stepping inside homes built on legacy, sharing stages with industry visionaries, and profiling the custodians of Indian luxury. Avarna Jain, Chairperson, RPSG Lifestyle Media, then addressed the room, speaking about the brand's commitment to a global outlook rooted in an Indian perspective.
The evening's centrepiece was a fireside conversation between Avarna Jain and Kajol on the evolving meaning of luxury. For Kajol, it comes down to freedom—the freedom to choose how one spends a morning, whether to work or not, and the space to simply be oneself. Heena Riat, luxury spirits and wine professional and Brand Ambassador for The Macallan, followed with a guided tasting, taking guests through the nuances, craftsmanship, and character of the spirit.
Dinner was served with a multi-course menu curated for the evening, accompanied by a live performance from Jasleen Royal and band—Love You Zindagi, Din Shagna, and others from her catalogue, her signature sound filling a ballroom inside a palace on a lake in Rajasthan. The most unscripted moment of the night came when Suresh Raina joined her on stage for an impromptu performance—the kind of thing no itinerary accounts for, and that no one in the room will particularly forget.
The night moved from the ballroom to Dahaad—Fairmont Udaipur Palace's leopard-themed bar and library lounge—for an after-party where DJ Aqueel took over. A palace bar at midnight in Udaipur, as it turns out, needs little else to recommend it.