Passing The Light: Bvlgari’s Ode To Diwali And The Art Of Craft

On October 11, all roads led to the Jaipur Centre of Art in the City Palace. Bvlgari, the Italian luxury maison, had chosen the Pink City to unveil its first global Diwali campaign, Passing the Light. It was an interesting choice of setting for a brand whose visual vocabulary is so distinctly Roman, and an occasion that brought together two worlds of craftsmanship, ritual and an appreciation of things made by hand.

At the centre of the evening was an installation of 4,500 terracotta elements by artist Doyel Joshi. Inspired by the humble diya and arranged in the hypnotic geometry of Bvlgari’s Serpenti scales, the work was both monumental and intimate. Its effect lay not simply in its scale, but in the material itself: earth shaped by human hands, repeated thousands of times to create a single, fluid form.

The diya is one of those objects that needs little explanation in India. At Diwali, its light carries associations of hope, renewal and the triumph of good over evil. But it is also part of the texture of everyday life, a ritual repeated in homes across generations. Joshi was interested in this personal dimension of the festival.

Splitting her time between Mumbai and New York, she spoke about the traditions that continue to give her a sense of home, even when she is away from it. Lighting diyas is one of them. For Passing the Light, she took this familiar ritual and reinterpreted its symbolism through sculpture, bringing together the warmth of terracotta and the recognisable curves of the Serpenti motif.

What was interesting here was the question of authorship. At a time when luxury brands are increasingly expected to be thoughtful about the cultures they draw from, there is a difference between borrowing a visual reference and making room for the people and traditions behind it. Here, the conversation was grounded in an Indian artist’s own experience, an Indian festival and the work of local artisans.

Joshi was particularly appreciative of the creative freedom she had been given. “The Bvlgari team asked me what my practice was and how can we build together within the context of Diwali,” she said during a panel discussion to mark the unveiling of the campaign. The other panellists were author and columnist Twinkle Khanna, Stephane Larher, Managing Director of Bvlgari, and Noelle Kadar, contemporary art expert and co-founder of Jaipur Centre for Art. “There was a respect for my creative process. The conversation was about finding human stories together,” added Joshi.

Twinkle Khanna emphasised that there is a thin line between cultural appropriation and appreciation. “This is clearly appreciation and I appreciate that,” she told Larher during the discussion.

That distinction matters. Rather than beginning with a brand motif and asking an artist to illustrate it, the collaboration began with a conversation about her practice and what Diwali meant to her. The Serpenti pattern became part of that exchange, its repeating scales finding a new expression in terracotta. The result was recognisably Bvlgari without losing its connection to the place in which it was made.

The installation also paid tribute to the Kumhar community of Rajasthan, whose pottery traditions have been passed down through generations. Terracotta is a material with a long and varied history in India, used for everything from everyday vessels and cooking pots to ritual objects and sacred images. For Passing the Light, the terracotta elements were shaped by local craftswomen, bringing the work of the community into a contemporary artistic context.

In a press release, Laura Burdese, Bvlgari’s CEO, spoke about the significance of India to the maison and the parallels between Indian craft traditions and the knowledge preserved in Bvlgari’s own ateliers. “True luxury is not simply about creating something beautiful; it is about giving meaning to what we inherit, preserving the knowledge and stories carried through generations, and allowing them to evolve with relevance and imagination,” she said.

For Bvlgari, Passing the Light offered a way to speak about India beyond the familiar language of inspiration and influence. And the success of such collaborations cannot be measured by the beauty of the finished installation alone. It also lies in how the work is made, whose voices shape it, and whether the people behind the craftsmanship are recognised as more than its executors. That is where the idea of passing the light becomes more than a Diwali metaphor.