Brands
Asian Paints, St+art turn Ballygunge into Kolkata’s living art district
KOLKATA: Asian Paints, in partnership with the St+art India Foundation, has unveiled St+art Kolkata Festival 2025–26, transforming Ballygunge into a canvas for public art, conversation and everyday creativity through a city-scale initiative titled ADDA: the third space.
Rooted in Kolkata’s long-standing adda and rowak culture, the festival reimagines public spaces as shared “third spaces”: neither home nor street alone, but places of connection, pause and belonging. The project unfolds through a series of outdoor art interventions across south Kolkata, alongside an indoor exhibition at TRI Art & Culture Centre.
At the heart of the festival is the Colour Corridor, an immersive passageway created by Sayan Mukherjee and inspired by Asian Paints’ Chromacosm. Designed as a sensorial welcome zone, it wraps visitors in colour, light and movement, inviting them to slow down and experience art as part of daily life. A specially written Bengali poem, voiced in the accompanying film, adds a lyrical tribute to the city’s pulse, while a typographic façade by street artist Khatra and augmented reality elements extend the experience across TRI’s premises.
Inside TRI Art & Culture Centre, an exhibition featuring works by ten artists blurs the boundary between private and public life. Familiar domestic spaces are reimagined: a bed becomes a gathering spot, a kitchen evokes memory through scent: using colour, texture, sound and smell to explore how connection and belonging are shaped in contemporary cities.
The Ballygunge project builds on Asian Paints’ long-running collaboration with St+art India Foundation, guided by the ethos of Art For All. Previous public art districts in Lodhi, Mahim and other neighbourhoods have similarly sought to pull art out of galleries and into the street, turning overlooked corners into places for collective experience.
“Kolkata has always expressed itself through art, colour and conversation,” said Asian Paints managing director and chief executive Amit Syngle. “With St+art Kolkata and ADDA: the third space, we are bringing art directly into neighbourhood life, showing how colour can shape emotion, memory and belonging.”
St+art India Foundation co-founder and chief curator Giulia Ambrogi, said the festival aimed to make art an everyday encounter rather than a spectacle, reflecting the city’s collective spirit and culture of dialogue.
Running across Ballygunge until January 15, St+art Kolkata 2025–26 invites residents to rediscover their city through tactile installations, poetic murals and shared spaces.
Brands
Rohini Laya Venkateswaran named executive director at Gillette India
P&G veteran with two decades of experience steps into leadership role
NEW DELHI: Rohini Laya Venkateswaran has been appointed executive director at Gillette India Pvt. Ltd., bringing with her more than two decades of experience across sales, strategy and brand leadership within the consumer goods sector. In her new role, she will help steer the company’s strategic direction and growth while strengthening its footprint in the grooming and personal care category.
Venkateswaran joins the board after a long career at Procter & Gamble, where she spent nearly 21 years shaping sales strategy, building brands and driving market expansion across India and international markets.
Most recently, she served as chief sales officer for India at P&G. Prior to that, she was vice president and country manager for east gulf markets, overseeing operations in Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar while also guiding sales strategy across the Gulf region, including the UAE.
Earlier in her career, she led sales strategy and planning for India while serving as marketing leader for brands such as Olay and Old Spice. During this stint, she focused on reshaping go-to-market channels and building awareness through digital, social and influencer-led campaigns to drive growth.
Her journey at P&G also included roles such as director sales strategy and planning leader India, associate director modern retail and ecommerce, regional manager for Delhi and Rajasthan, and several key account and trade marketing roles across the country. She also spent time in the United States working on the P&G Walmart international team, collaborating on global retail initiatives.
Venkateswaran holds an MBA in marketing from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from RV College of Engineering.
With her mix of sales acumen, brand-building experience and global exposure, Venkateswaran’s appointment signals a sharpened focus on growth and market leadership for Gillette India.
