Kumbh Mela: Photographing the Largest Gathering in the World
The Kumbh Mela festival in India only happens every few years—this year’s edition, the Mahakumbh, only happens every 144 years. Four Amazing Aerial photographers traveled to the scene to capture this extraordinary gathering of humanity.
Mar 07, 2025
An aerial view of devotees gathering along the Yamuna River for the Prayag Kumbh Mela, the largest peaceful gathering of people in the world. © Amazing Aerial Agency / Petar Santini
By Rebecca Duras
From January 13th to February 26th, 2025, over 400 million people and thousands of holy men (sadhus) came to the city of Prayagraj, on the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers with the mythical Saraswati River, for the festival of Kumbh Mela, which occurs in 12-year cycles between different cities. This year’s Maha Kumbh Mela marked the alignment of the planets Jupiter and Saturn with other celestial bodies, which only occurs every 144 years.
Amazing Aerial team members Pankaj Aditya, Pratig Chorge and Chirag Sadhnani, who are all based in India, were among the hundreds of photographers rushing to capture this once-in-a-lifetime event. Another Amazing Aerial team member, Petar Santini, traveled all the way from Croatia to the city of Prayagraj to take part.
For these photographers, there was no question of making a trip to the festival. “Kumbh Mela is one of the most visually spectacular and culturally rich events in the world,” Pratik Chorge explains, and the opportunity to capture crowds of millions of people, sacred rituals, colorful backgrounds, all against the backdrop of immense spiritual significance could not be missed.
Getting to the Biggest Festival in the World
Besides being an important spiritual gathering, the Kumbh Mela is also a significant logistical challenge. Authorities have to organize roads, camps, food and beverage stalls, a media center, and more.
For those wishing to professionally photograph the event, there are extra logistical hurdles, especially when coming from abroad. Petar Santini started planning for his trip over a month in advance, although in retrospect he recommends planning much earlier.
Petar was able to get a meeting with the Indian Embassy in Croatia, in part thanks to his connections with Amazing Aerial. “Amazing Aerial was my leverage because it has channels through which it can share this story, and the ambassador and the people in the embassy were really happy that someone here is interested in that.” He credits Ambassador Arun Goel and his team with obtaining a J-visa for him, which led to an official press pass at Kumbh Mela, and connecting him to valuable people on the ground. “Without them I wouldn’t have been able to do many things, I would have been just a tourist,” he says.
He decided to travel to New Delhi a week before visiting Kumbh Mela to try and arrange other logistics. His spontaneity paid off—his accommodation host in New Delhi was enthusiastic about trying to help, suggesting the best routes to get to Prayagraj and helped him find accommodation. This encounter also proved faithful as Petar’s accommodation host at the festival was also a photographer and helped him break the ice as he got used to the Kumbh Mela.
While on the ground in Kumbh Mela, Petar realized just how useful his official press status was. Besides giving him access to viewing platforms dedicated just to media members during important events such as bathing rituals, he also had access to the exclusive media center. “The media center made it possible for me to charge my batteries—both for myself and for my camera,” Petar shares. Having a place to rest and recharge was important because he was getting up at 5 A.M. and commuting for two hours to reach the festival. With tens of millions of people entering the city per day, especially around the main bathing dates, it was important to plan the logistics of entering the city for each photographer.
For logistical support, Amazing Aerial team members could also rely on each other. They had their own WhatsApp group which allowed photographers to share information and locations. As the different photographers arrived at Kumbh Mela, they could report on where to go and what to avoid.
One of the major logistical challenges facing organizers of the Kumbh Mela is how to keep everyone safe at the largest gathering of people in the world. Crowds anywhere, including rock concerts, can be unsafe. Petar reported seeing extensive precautions from local authorities geared towards crowd control and public safety, such as plenty of police presence, police officers directing foot traffic, and announcements advising pilgrims to avoid overcrowded areas. However, even with such precautions, tragedies can happen, such as the crowd rush on January 29th that killed an estimated 30 people.
Photographing the Joyful Chaos
Even once the logistics of getting photo permission at the festival are sorted, getting good photos is not as easy as it seems. “One of the biggest challenges in photographing the Mahakumbh is navigating the immense scale and the overwhelming crowds,” Pankaj Aditya says. With so many people around, spread out over a large surface area, it’s impossible to capture everything.
Pratik also experienced challenges navigating the crowds. “Moving through the crowd to find the right angles can be extremely difficult,” he says. “The dense crowds also limit your ability to quickly change positions or get closer to the action.”
Petar explains that it is important to have a list of “bucket shots” to give you some direction when photographing such a large event. “Maybe I could have had more bucket shots but I realized when I got there that as one person I cannot photograph it all,” he says.
Pankaj felt a bit more familiar going into the festival, having previously photographed smaller editions of Mela. “My past experiences gave me a strong sense of the key moments and rituals that define the event,” he says.
He was not the only photographer with prior experience of the rotating festival. Chirag Sadhnani had begun his photography journey at the Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela in 2015, so the opportunity to photograph the Mahakumbh felt like coming full circle. “The realness and rawness of so many people gathering to take a dip in the holy Ganga fascinated me,” he says. “Honestly I just missed being on the streets so I decided to go back!
Important events such as the ritual baths, the processions of the sadhus (holy men), the different orders (akharas) and their colorful tent camps are must-sees for photographers. The most important event at the festival is the Shahi Snan, or “royal bath,” when processions of holy men and devotees bathe in the river. Hindu believers consider bathing in the river as a way of achieving spiritual purification from past karma and journeying closer to moksha, or liberation from the reincarnation cycle. For photographers, the Shahi Snan is an opportunity to photograph dozens of religious orders in one place, to capture true religious devotion and feeling, and to feel connected to ancient traditions as the Kumbh Mela is one of the world’s oldest religious gatherings.
Even for photographers with prior experience photographing big events, or even prior experience photographing the Kumbh Mela, the massive crowds can be overwhelming. Chirag recommends taking a few days to adjust before attempting to get photos. “It took me two full days to absorb the atmosphere without the camera, allowing myself to adjust and fully experience the environment. By the third day, I felt ready to photograph it all,” he says.
The challenges only make the photos that come out of Kumbh Mela even more beautiful and special. Having to work around constraints such as crowds, weather, and permits also forces photographers to be more persistent and creative. Both Petar and Pankaj emphasize that their best photographs came from spontaneous moments and that it is good to remain open.
Capturing a Once-in-a-Lifetime Festival From Above
For many photographers, getting an aerial shot of the Kumbh Mela is a much-coveted goal, especially for Amazing Aerial members. Showing the full extent of such a massive event is only possible from above. Aerial photography also allows photographers to transcend some of the challenges of ground photography, such as the crowds.
Getting permission to fly a drone at the Kumbh Mela is notoriously difficult. “During the Mahakumbh, drone flights were strictly regulated, and only media teams with special authorization were allowed to fly drones,” Pankaj explains.
Some people attempt to circumvent this by flying drones illegally, but our photographers wanted to do things the right way. Petar Santini recalls that drone flights were strictly controlled to protect the safety of attendees. “The police had systems for taking down drones,” he says.
Petar discovered another option for taking aerial photographs, which was a helicopter company that was offering flights over the festival. However, the helicopter company quoted him a price of $5000-8000 for a flight, which was far outside his budget.
The only option was to pay someone to use their drone, but this process took careful negotiating over prices, the length of the flight, and more. Even when negotiations were successful, Petar was stymied by other factors, such as conditions on the ground. Fog and haze from the fires below made his first attempt at aerial photos blurry and unsuccessful.
Petar made peace with not getting aerial photographs from the Kumbh Mela when something similar to fate intervened. In his very last minutes at the festival, he finally made contact and finalized an agreement with someone willing to loan him a drone—who happened to be standing 200 meters away from him at that very moment. “I swear at the last moment I changed my plans, my guide wanted to go north, I decided to go south, and that’s how I was able to get the drone photos,” Petar says, describing the spontaneity of the moment. Although he only had one battery on a drone from 2017, Petar was able to capture stunning images that are even more beautiful when you know the story of how they occurred.
For Petar, finally getting his much-wanted aerial photos— after initially letting go of the idea— became a powerful reflection of one of the most important spiritual lessons he picked up during Kumbh Mela: moksha, or liberation through detachment. “Throughout this journey, I realized that true freedom comes from accepting when things don’t go as planned and releasing attachment to specific outcomes. That detachment didn’t mean giving up; rather, it allowed me to push beyond my personal limitations and experience immense growth. Setting a strong intention while remaining open to how things unfold—that’s what ultimately made everything fall into place,” he says.
The Personal Joys of the Kumbh Mela
An image of a holy man, or sadhu, at the Kumbh Mela festival. © Pankaj Aditya / Amazing Aerial Agency
Although most stories about the Kumbh Mela focus on the logistical hurdles and the sensationalism of the crowds, for Petar and other Amazing Aerial team members, the dominant feelings were those of joy and connection.
Pankaj felt a special connection with other media people working the event, many of whom are his friends and colleagues. “It was a special moment to reconnect with all of my photography friends during the Maha Kumbh, sharing the experience together and capturing the event through our lenses.”
Petar also found joy in the relationships he built at the Kumbh Mela, from the connection with Paul Prescott who encouraged his project, to the connection with the other Amazing Aerial team members who were attending, and with his AirBnb host, who was also a photographer. “I went to Prayagraj, and we immediately connected as if we were friends, we went together into all of that,” he says. He also made meaningful connections with other photographers as he spent time in the media center.
For Petar, one of the most beautiful things about attending the Kumbh Mela was seeing the strong community bonds between the pilgrims, as well as their spiritual joy. “You have small communities such as families, several families, or an entire village that came by bus and are literally all holding on to a rope like a school trip so that they don’t get lost,” he says. Inspired by what he saw, he dedicated his last few days in the festival to photographing the people attending the event. “It took me a few days to connect to the fact that taking these photos is not selfish, that it is necessary for me to share this story,” he says. “I dedicated my last few days at the festival to connecting more deeply with people, getting closer to them, and capturing up-close, candid moments. I focused on storytelling through imagery rather than traditional posed portraits.”
Chirag also wanted to focus on capturing the stories of people attending the Kumbh Mela, and his favorite memories are of witnessing tender moments between pilgrims and sharing in that spirit. Many families were excited to have their photo taken as a souvenir of the most significant trip of their lives. “One of my favorite memories was witnessing a husband and wife who had spent all of their money traveling to the Kumbh Mela for the holy dip. I captured the wife feeding her husband Gol Gappa and telling me how much she loved him,” he says. “The raw emotion in that moment was unforgettable.”
Petar was struck with the strength of spiritual belief demonstrated by the people in his photos, and the power of having so many people in one place. Although he is not a Hindu, a visit to the Kumbh Mela helped him with his personal journey towards reconnecting with his creativity and being more proactive about his personal projects. “My purpose was for me to go, to feel a little more alive, to see that I can do it, and to now be able to share all of that,” Petar said.
His visit to the Kumbh Mela also changed how he related to his work. He focused on building relationships with the people he interacted with, rather than chasing a list of shots or a feeling of personal gain. He credits his time at the festival as well as his familiarity with Sadhguru’s basic explanations of important concepts such as moksha with this perspective shift. “This change in perspective allowed me to embrace the process itself, rather than just the end results, which means it also helped me to be more relaxed during the stay at the Mela, because I didn’t obsess about the outcome.”
For photographers who are also Hindu believers such as Pankaj, the event brings an added level of joy. “My personal favorite memory of visiting the Kumbh Mela was taking a dip in the holy river, experiencing the spiritual significance firsthand,” he shared. Pratik was also able to take a dip in the Triveni Sangam, the site of the holy confluence, which was a special moment for him.
Attending the Kumbh Mela? Photograph Responsibly
A parade of sadhus in body paint and loincloths. While the holy men are one of the most eye-catching aspects of the Kumbh Mela, it is important to do so respectfully. © Chirag Sadhnani / Amazing Aerial Agency
When approaching the Kumbh Mela as a Western photography agency, or as Western photographers, it is important to do so respectfully. Petar was aware that often stories about India or the Kumbh Mela are sensationalistic, and wanted to challenge that.
Approaching the Kumbh Mela with intention played a role in his choice not to photograph the holy men. “The whole process of photographing the holy men seemed too tourist-like to me, and on the other hand I had some awe of the holy men,” he said. Since he only had a week at the festival, he felt as if he didn’t have enough time or the background knowledge to properly engage with the holy men and understand them. “It’s important that my work reflects a deeper understanding and respect for the individuals that I photograph,” he said.
Other photographers shared Petar’s concern about photographing the holy men. “Some sadhus may be uncomfortable being photographed, necessitating discretion and sometimes explicit consent,” explains Pratik. Many sadhus intentionally choose to live outside of modern civilization, and the constant presence of cameras on what many consider the most spiritually significant day of their entire lives may be disturbing.
The people make up the magic of Kumbh Mela, captured in this gallery of vibrant portraits © Pankaj Aditya / Amazing Aerial Agency
Being respectful is not just about your behavior while photographing, but also about the stories you tell when you get home. By focusing on pilgrims, Petar hoped to share a side of the Kumbh Mela that, despite its massive media attention, is rarely shown. “I turned towards families and photographed those events that are not sensationalistic but actually make up 99.9% of the 400 million people there,” he says. He describes the many people attending as pilgrims as the essence of the experience.
Petar’s commitment to portraying the Kumbh Mela with respect resonated with the Indian Embassy in Croatia, helping him establish the connections that made the trip possible. While the journey contributed to his personal growth, Petar tried not to make it a purely personal quest, but rather an opportunity to learn from experience. In the end, it became something much greater than himself. “If you go somewhere just to tell a story for your own gain, you’re taking from that culture. But when there’s a purpose greater than yourself, it becomes an act of giving—you receive from the culture, and in turn, you share that knowledge so others can find value in the story,” he explains.
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