How a Christmas Tree on Carter Road Became One of Mumbai’s Most Powerful Cultural Symbols

Bandra Wonderland began with a simple but audacious idea. In December 2023, Rahool N Kanal, founder of the I Love Mumbai Foundation, put up a Christmas tree at the Carter Road Amphitheatre on the Bandra promenade. What followed was not incremental growth or polite public interest. It became a cultural behemoth.

Over the course of the event’s run, attendance numbers swelled to staggering proportions. People poured in not just from Bandra or Mumbai, but from across the city and beyond. By conservative estimates, close to a crore people experienced Bandra Wonderland in some form during that period. A neighbourhood gesture had transformed into a citywide pilgrimage

From Community Stage to Citywide Phenomenon

The structure of Bandra Wonderland mattered as much as its scale. The early part of each evening belonged to the neighbourhood. Local residents, community artists, and performers from the Catholic community took the stage. Thanks to sponsorships from philanthropists like Seema Singh through her MeghaShrey foundation, these were intimate moments rooted in familiarity, tradition, and shared memory. Families attended together. Locals recognised locals. This community-first approach also shaped who represented the event on stage. As a Bandra resident and a childhood friend of Rahool N Kanal, I was fortunate to be closely involved from the inside. After anchoring smaller community-led performances and seeing the response they generated, I was invited to anchor Bandra Wonderland across all days. It was not a performance role alone. It was stewardship of the crowd’s emotional arc.

As the evenings progressed, the tone shifted. What began as a community gathering evolved into something far more electric. By late night, Bandra Wonderland became a full-scale celebration. In 2024, this transformation reached a new level when Kratex performed his globally recognised track “Taambdi Chaamdi”, turning the amphitheatre into a euphoric open-air rave. What made this transition powerful was that it never erased the community layer that came before it. It built upon it.

The Community at the Heart of Bandra Wonderland

What truly anchored Bandra Wonderland in its neighbourhood soul was the participation of Bandra’s own residents across generations. Among the most visible community figures was Dr. Cheryl Misquitta, President of Bandra Gymkhana, whose presence symbolised the deep institutional and cultural roots of the event within Bandra’s civic life.

Equally integral were Johan and Nolencea Dharmai, long-time Bandra residents who have remained actively involved in the local community ecosystem. Their children, Brooklyn and Ozyl, performed at the Christmas tree, embodying the intergenerational continuity that Bandra Wonderland represents. Both children wowed the audience not only with their exceptional delivery of the tunes but also with their stage presence. Little Brooklyn’s voice gave me gooosbumps when she nailed her “Oh Holy Night” at the tree. These moments were not rehearsed spectacles but expressions of lived belonging.

Lisa Rodrigues, a Bandra localite and a thespian from Raell Padamsee’s Ace Productions camp, who is currently playing the titular character of Alice in the musical - Alice in Paradise, also took to the stage, reinforcing the idea that the event was not curated from outside but grew organically from within the neighbourhood. The a udiev was spell Boyd by her soprano notes that she effortlessly showed off to everyone’s delight. Alongside her, Adrian from St Michael’s Parish and young Isabell from St Andrew’s Parish performed at the tree, adding to the warmth and authenticity of the community segment.

The St Anne’s Children Choir too was a pure joy to hear with their harmonious carol tunes.

These performances were quiet yet powerful reminders that Bandra Wonderland is not sustained by scale alone. It is sustained by families, children, neighbours, and institutions choosing to show up, participate, and claim public space together. This community layer forms the emotional foundation on which the larger celebration rests.

That spirit of continuity and return was perhaps most poignantly embodied by Khurshed. A decade ago, he had taken on the iconic role of Jesus in Alyque Padamsee’s second Indian iteration of Jesus Christ Superstar, the legendary West End spectacle composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. His appearance at Bandra Wonderland marked a deeply personal return to the stage, driven not by ambition or revivalism, but by a sheer love for music and live performance. Performing original compositions under his new artist avatar, Mr Mogrelia, Khurshed quietly captivated the audience. His set carried theatrical depth, lived emotion, and a sense of artistic evolution, reinforcing the idea that Bandra Wonderland is as much about homecoming as it is about celebration. Becoming Part of the Neighbourhood Winter Festival

In 2024, Bandra Wonderland entered a new chapter by becoming part of the Neighbourhood Winter Festival, a month-long cultural festival conceptualised under the leadership of Ashish Shelar, Cabinet Minister for Culture and Technology and Guardian Minister for Mumbai Suburbs. This integration elevated Bandra Wonderland from a marquee event into a pillar of a larger cultural ecosystem. The festival format mattered. Rather than compressing culture into a single weekend, the Neighbourhood Winter Festival unfolded across the entire month, allowing citizens to return repeatedly to public spaces and experiences. The 2024 edition also carried political significance. It marked a visible alliance between the Shinde camp and the BJP. Rahool Kanal’s association with the Shinde group and Ashish Shelar’s leadership from the BJP side came together in a public, celebratory context. Eknath Shinde attended Bandra Wonderland in 2024, reinforcing its stature within Mumbai’s civic and political ecosystem. Bandra Wonderland was no longer peripheral. It had become central.

Governance, Code of Conduct, and Institutional Presence

The 2025 edition unfolded under different constraints. With the Model Code of Conduct or Achar Sanhita in force ahead of the BMC elections, Despite this, the institutional presence remained strong. The Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation attended, as did the CEO of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority. Ashish Shelar himself joined on the final day, underscoring continuity and commitment even within regulatory boundaries.

This balance between compliance and celebration reflected the maturity of the event. Bandra Wonderland no longer depended on spectacle alone. Its legitimacy was institutional, cultural, and civic.

Carter Road and the Democratisation of Global Experiences

Location played a decisive role. The Carter Road promenade is among Mumbai’s most iconic seafronts. Open, accessible, and emotionally embedded in the city’s imagination, it provided the perfect canvas. Bandra Wonderland offered something rare in contemporary India. A global-scale festive experience without a ticket barrier. For many attendees, international festivals like Tomorrowland, Sunburn, or Coachella remain financially inaccessible. Bandra Wonderland bridged that gap by delivering scale, sound, lights, and collective catharsis in a public space. This was recreation without exclusion. Merriment without hierarchy.

The Christmas Tree as a Symbol Beyond Faith

At the heart of Bandra Wonderland stood the tree. While rooted in Christian symbolism, the tree evolved into something far more expansive. As an evergreen, it represents enduring faith, hope, joy, and peace. Placed on Indian soil, in a shared civic space, it also became a symbol of unity and aspiration. The height of the tree spoke to progress. The star at its peak became a metaphor for India’s capacity to rise through ingenuity, labour, and collective effort. For working-class attendees and labour-intensive professionals who often lack access to leisure, the tree stood as an invitation rather than a display. It belonged to everyone.

Technology, Culture, and the Promise of Tomorrow

Bandra Wonderland succeeded because it blended technology with culture rather than allowing one to overpower the other. Sound, lighting, stagecraft, and logistics operated in service of emotion and community rather than distraction. The underlying promise was simple yet powerful. This year is ending. The next year can be better.

That promise resonated across economic strata, age groups, and belief systems.

Sponsors, Partners, and Collective Effort

Such an undertaking required deep collaboration. Sponsors, including Meghashrey, Shanti Gold, Ammakai by Bastian, Amari Capital, Sach Developer, GVP Realty, Bombay Sweet Shop and Niton, played a critical role. AltBollywood, where I serve as Founder and Editor-in-Chief, was proud to be the official online media partner, ensuring the event’s story travelled far beyond Carter Road. Behind the scenes, the effort was immense. Technology teams, sound engineers, security personnel, hospitality crews, gifting partners, and media teams worked in synchrony. Bandra Wonderland was a labour of love, built by people who understood that cultural success is cumulative.

Looking Ahead

Bandra Wonderland has completed three successful years. What began as a single Christmas tree has evolved into one of Mumbai’s most inclusive cultural rituals.

Its real achievement lies not in numbers alone, but in what it restores. A sense of shared celebration. Public space as cultural capital. Hope as a lived experience rather than a slogan.

Here’s to Bandra Wonderland, and to many more years of lighting up Carter Road, the city, and the collective imagination.