‘Aatidonji Dinata Utsava 2026’ Festival A Rare Feast Successfully Concluded with Sarvadharma Theme:
Sandhya Creations Event Network Team (SCENT) successfully hosted “Aatidonji Dinata Utsava 2026” Season 5 at the Millennium Airport Hotel, Al Garhoud, Dubai, on Sunday, 4th October 2026. The grand celebration witnessed an overwhelming response, with over 2,000 Tuluvas and Kannadigas from across the UAE coming together to enjoy the full-day festivities. The event was filled with joy, interaction, and cultural pride, creating a vibrant, cheerful atmosphere that everyone present felt through their reactions.
The program began at 9.30 am with a grand, colorful procession from outside the Millennium Airport Hotel. Leading the way were traditional drummers, followed by beautiful women gracefully dressed in ethnic attire carrying Kalasha, while Laxmi Poojary appeared as “Aati Kalanja”, carrying Murrah of Rice and Vegetables, adding a cultural essence to the occasion.
The Main Blessing Religious Guests from India were Dharmaguru’s Sri Sri Swasthisri Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Pandithacharayavariya Swamiji of Jain Math, Moodbidri, Karnataka State. Janab Anees Kousary, Dharmaguru Gen.Sec.SKSSF, Karnataka State & Rev.Fr. Victor Fernandes, Parish Priest, Dharmaguru of St. Mary’s Church, Spiritual Director, Dubai, UAE. They were all traditionally welcomed with Tender Coconut Water and dry fruits while they were seated in Maharaja-style seats in front of the Stage.
Inaugurator Shri. U.T. Khader, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, was unable to attend due to an emergency meeting of the State at the last moment; however, he sent a note wishing success to the program.
Main Sponsor Dr. Ronald Colaco has expressed that he will not be able to join because of a prior commitment, but has wholeheartedly wished all success to the program.
Chief Guest Padmashree Dr. B.R. Shetty, Patron of Kannadigas in UAE, ‘Special Guest of Honour’ Shri. Mahabalamurthy Kodlekere, Poet, Story writer, Novelist, Shri. Jagadish Adhikari, State Coordinator of Jayashreekrishna Parisara Premi Samiti NGO (rep Jayakrishna Shetty), Wilson Fernandes of Parisara Premi Samiti, Sarvotham Shetty, President of Abu Dhabi Karnataka Sangha, were some of the important guests present during the program.
While all the Guests were seated, the drum beaters were performing on the stage with their skills, and the guests were relaxing and enjoying the sounds of the opening ceremony.
A warm welcome was extended by Shodhan Prasad to all the distinguished guests, invitees, and the large audience who had gathered enthusiastically right from the morning hours. He then introduced the Master of Ceremonies of the event, Hitesh Ganiga & Sushana Ganiga, who took charge of the formal proceedings and carried the event forward with their signature charm and eloquence.
Shodhan Prasad then presented the introduction of the 3 distinguished Guests in a video, one by one, and thereafter requested all the guests onto the stage for the formal traditional lighting of the lamp. After the video introduction presentation, all the Guests were invited onto the stage for the inauguration of the Aatidonji Dinata Utsava 2026 Festival Event. It started with the traditional lighting of the lamp, pouring rice into the pot, opening up the ‘pingara’, watering the flower plant, following the various rituals of all religion inauguration ceremony, a way differently celebrated with interfaith communities on one stage.
Soon all the Chief Guests, Guest of Honours were escorted toward the well placed 22 Food Stalls comprising of Food Stalls of around 14 Tulu/Kannada Communities, Free Medical Check-up Stall with Doctors and Nurses, Free Ayurveda Stall with Ayurveda Doctor and Staff, Free Eye Check-up Stall with Doctors and display of Frames, Lenses and Spectacles, Famous Indian Masala Stall, Travel & Tourism Stall, Real Estate Stall, Property Developers Stall, Management Consultant Stall and many others including Games Stall.
The Community Food Stalls comprised of the following:-
SM Cricstars – by Satish Ullal & Mohan
Kannadigara Koota – led by Arun Kumar
Shree Vishwakarma Seva Samiti led by Kiran Rao
Krishna Jyothi – led by Jyothi
Rajaka Family led by Mokshit Ramesh
Beary’s Chamber of Commerce – led by Hidayat Adoor
Margadeepa Samskrutika Samiti led by Sugandhraj Bekal
Vokkaligara Sangha – led by Kiran Gowda
Udupi Family led by Rajesh Radhvi
Karnataka Sangha Dubai – led by Shashidhar Nagarajappa
Karnataka Sangha Al Ain – led by Savitha Nayak
Amchi Friends led by Sudarshan Hegde
Jain Milan UAE – led by Nagavarma Jain/Aravind
SCENT – led by Shodhan Prasad
SWADISHT RESTAURANT – led by Padmanabh Kateel had a full-fledged restaurant
Each group had beautifully decorated stalls, showcasing an array of authentic Aati delicacies. The stalls, glowing with vibrant lighting and filled with traditional flavors, drew the audience in large numbers. Visitors eagerly moved from stall to stall, savoring the unique tastes of seasonal Aati cuisine, while the aroma of freshly prepared dishes filled the entire venue, spreading the spirit of Tulunadu’s food heritage far and wide. There were many influencers capturing the moment and spreading the fragrance on social media.
SCENT had a Stall distributing Free Ganji, Variety of chutneys, Pickles & Water to everybody and the Chief Guests inaugurated the Food Stall from this Stall also savoring the Ganji & Chatni distributing to all other guests. Later, they toured around all the stalls, viewing the preparations, displays, and decorations each one had made for the competition and distribution. There were Mangalorean Special ‘Kali’ Palm Juice as well as other beverage stalls erected by the Hotel Management, selling at reasonable cost to the public.
FREE MEDICAL CHECK UP STALLS:
Grand Infinity Medical Clinic – led by Geetha Nayak
Vedamrita Ayurveda Clinic – led by Dr. Deepa
Vision & Style Opticals – led by Ivan D’Souza
Other Stalls include:
Masala Thota – led by Ankitha
Urbanrise – led by Krishna Kumar
Dream Destinations – led by Mohan Kumar
AR Star Management Consultancy – led by Swathi Achar
Golden Creative Logistics
Tiale Real Estate
RIVA Laser Medical Clinic & Aesthetic Institution
While the Chief Guests were going round the stalls, the stage was busy with singers singing various songs, especially the folk ones in Tulu and Kannada.
Then there were two Dances titled Ganesha Nritya & Swagata Nritya by Aarti & Sinchana, beautifully presented back-to-back and well applauded by the crowd.
Followed was the memories of the past were previous years videos were played one after another which showed the cheering crowd and the enthusiastic dances from the participants squeezed into small videos.
Next was the formal stage program where the Chief Guests were again requested to come on the stage and be seated for the felicitation. Dharmaguru’s Sri Sri Swasthisri Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Pandithacharayavariya Swamiji of Jain Math, Moodbidri, Karnataka State. Janab Anees Kousary, Dharmaguru Gen.Sec.SKSSF, Karnataka State & Rev.Fr. Victor Fernandes, Parish Priest, Dharmaguru of St. Mary’s Church, Spiritual Director, Dubai, UAE, were felicitated with a shawl, Garland, flower bouquet, dry fruit basket & Memento individually. All three Dharmagurus spoke very well, covering all the aspects of humanity, religious tolerance, knowing each other’s religious practices, history of religious events, and how we are interconnected. Their speech gave a good message to the audience, who patiently heard and cheered every time interacting with the Guests words of wisdom.
A special felicitation for Guest of Honour Shri. Mahabala Murthy Kodlekere was next, with a shawl, Fruit Basket, Flower Bouqet & Memento by the organizers. In return for the felicitation, Shri. Mahabala spoke nicely, accepting the honour and expressing his gratitude to the organisers.
All the other Guests were also honoured with a flower, shawl, and memento one by one, and they all spoke, congratulating the organisers and wishing all the best.
The event continued non-stop with other cultural activities comprising of variety of Folk Dances, Folk singing, Fancy Dress, Skits, Comedy Poetry which was open to all and more than 135 participants were present which went on till 6.30 pm. Everyone gave their best performance, which was continuously applauded by the audience, and the organisers honoured all of them with Medals after each and every presentation.
Participants included Alwyn Pinto, Asumpto Monteiro, Lancy Noronha, Satish Jain, Mokshit Kunder, Parthavi Narayanswamy, Laxmi Poojary, Aishwarya Aithal, Spoorthi Pai, Hitheshri Santosh Bhuva, Shivamsh Nayak, Akarsh Kannur Ro, Atharv Abhishek Shetty, Rhidvith Divesh, Anshika Prabhu, Thankishka Rajeev, Naviya Guru, Arathi Sinchana, Shreeya, Elsa, Thanvi Gunda, Naviya Seelavanth, Jitanya, Diya, Aashvi, Shasmita, Evannah, Pragathi, Likita, Saanvi, Myra, Irene, Sahasra, Sai, Saritha Devadiga, Poornima Kamath, Akshatha Harikrishna, Sahana Pai, Jaimini Patel, Hetal Bhuva, Geetha Nayak, Mamatha, Anu, Vidya, Nethra, Rashmi, Poornima, Sushma, Sherlin, Deepti, Tanvi, Deesha, Mrithila, Meghna, Kushi, Deekshita, Rashmita, Shiya Chitaranjan, Ovi Chitaranjan, Pratiksha Prakash Shetty, Ronika Shetty, Mallika, Saumya, Avinash, Holla, Dr.Santosh, Nazrath Hussain, Sushma Harish, Joseph Mathias, Dinesh Doddannagudde, Vasudev Kamath, Dilshan, Ramachandra, Anjana, Divya Srinivas, Kaitlyn Ana Pinto, Ashok Bailur, Samnchita Shridhar, Isha Krishna, Saisha, Ridwin, Chinmay, Anvesha, Bhavish, Drishan, Anirudra, Abhinav, Uday Kumar, Smrithi Hebbar, Ishani, Gururaj Hiremat, Aditri Upadhayaya, Navya, Manjunath, Kishore, Kaavya, Deeksha, Savitha, Prashanth, Savitha Srinivas Nayak, Rashmita S., Girisha K.P., Nithin Kumar, Pravin Kumar, Narasimha Rajesh, Kavya, Prashanth & Umadevi. Everyone did their exceptional performance which was applauded and honoured by the organisers.
There were various raffle draws conducted by some stalls and prizes distributed. SCENT also had a raffle draw on the entry tickets, which had a few prizes that were won by the audience.
Shodhan Prasad, on behalf of SCENT, acknowledged the active participation of the Volunteers, Sub Committee Members, Core Committee Members, and handed over Special Mementos to all of them, thanking them for their contributions.
The Core Committee Members are Shodhan & Sandhya Prasad, Sudarshan & Veena Hegde, Nityanand & Kiran Beskore, Alwyn Pinto, Ashok Bailur, Manoj Poojary, Kiran Kottary, Reshma D’Souza & Oscar Rego. The Sub-Committee Members include Shameer Bolar, Raghu Kini, Prashanth Nayak, Nithin, Muralidhar Shetty, Sachin Shenoy & Sudhir Suvarna. Volunteers include Suraj Bangera, Vijesh Kumar, Dhananjay, Nithesh, Preethesh, Yakshith, Pramod, Ujwal, Nagaraj, Shamal, Sadiq, Nida, Faisal, Sharath, Shwkath, Rihan & Deekshit.
He also lauded the roles of Influencers in the success of the show and invited Vani Prashant, Nithin Devadiga & Karavali Cousins, who have generated many video promotions and became part of the success. They were honoured with mementos on stage.
Millennium Airport Hotel Management was also thanked, and Mahesh Srinivas was invited on the stage and felicitated on behalf of the venue support.
RDRK Events & Studio and homeowners Ramya Bhat & Karthik were invited on stage and felicitated for being part of the event as partners.
Special mention was made acknowledging the active role of Sandhya Prasad, who led the whole team of SCENT towards success. Her super active role in arranging meetings, guiding members, coordinating with all the 14 Community Leaders, planning the Event, Arranging Felicitation Mementos and coordinating with Core Committee members, sub-committee, volunteers for the requirements, Food, Decoration, Stalls arrangements. Over and above her managing the stage during the event which was remarkable. Shodhan Prasad thanked her and also thanked all the committee members who supported her wholeheartedly, which led to the super success of the event.
Results of the Food Competitions are here below:
Ethnic Aati Food Competition
– 1st Rajaka Family
– 2nd Karnataka Sangha Al Ain
– 3rd Margadeepa Sanskratika Samiti UAE
Specialty Prizes
Best Visual Appeal – Shree Vishwakarma Seva Samiti
Best Nutritional Value – Udupi Family
Best Overall Presentation – Karnataka Sangha Dubai
Best Taste – Jain Milan UAE
Shodhan Prasad rendered the vote of thanks to each and every one who was part of the show and acknowledged everybody’s support in making the AATIDONJI DINATA UTSAVA 2026 a grand success. This has created a history of exclusive ‘Sarva Dharma Milana’ in this part of the world.
‘Aatidonji Dina’, originally conceptualized by Shodhan Prasad, has evolved into a well-recognized cultural brand. SCENT (Sandhya Creations Event Network Team) is the first organization to bring this vibrant celebration to an international stage, outside of India. The 2026 event marked the successful presentation of its fifth season.