"This is a unique phenomenon for India!" Technical Director of The Grand Theatre talks about the Alina festival in Mumbai

Before the 2026 Alina festival, George Panait, Technical Director of The Grand Theatre, explained the uniqueness of the show on the stage of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center:

"The most amazing part of our concert hall is our chandelier. It contains 8400 Swarovski crystals, the size of an egg. Behind each crystal, there is a lighting feature, so that we can achieve around 1.4 million shades of colors. And then, the chandelier can be mapped. Currently, we mapped the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center logo. But this one has been used for immersive shows, like for 'Life of Pi'. For the first time, we’re going to have on stage — gymnastics, which I think is unique in India, which is great. We have Alina, even nicer. I think this will be the largest elevated screen that we ever had, at the back over there. And we’re going to have, for the second time, a full orchestra in the orchestra pit. That, again, is amazing. We had a full orchestra for the opening, three years ago. So this will be a second time we have a full orchestra playing classical music". 

He also recalled how Russian figure skaters participated in an ice show at the same venue:

"Actually, what is great is that in December we had, we did Nutcracker on ice. All the skaters from Russia, all European champions, Olympic champions, World Champions. So on stage, we built a big ice rink. Now, the same size, we’re going to build a gymnastics rink. So, it’s nice going from a Russian theme, presenting first time skating on ice, and now again, we’re going to have a unique Russian theme presenting gymnastics at NMACC".