VR 360 technology for Kumbh Mela

Kumbh Mela,world's largest congregation of religious pilgrims, at Ujjain this year will welcome a new and a unique entrant into the religious domain- VR Technolgy. Indore-based Twist Mobile, a mobile gaming startup backed by Matrix Partners India, will be tapping a huge religious space for virtual reality, starting with KumbhMela this month.

The one-month-long Ujjain Kumbh Mela, starting from 21st April, will be witnessing a large portion of people visiting the Mahakaal temple and it will be crucial how management caters to such a large crowd.

To ease this pressure, governing authorities have decided to install VR 360 technology that will let people experience immersive visuals of MahakaalBhasamAarti. "We expect 50-million visitors at the Kumbh Mela," says SS Rawat, deputy mela officer, Government of Madhya Pradesh, adding that with VR 360 technology visuals hopefully many people may opt for VRdarshan of the Mahakaalaarti, lessening the crowd in the temple premises.

The MP government will be deploying 40,000 police personnel, 15,000 government employees, and 10,000 NGOs/volunteers for crowd management.

"We expect 4.5-million pilgrims to watch VR Mahakaal Bhasam Aarti" saysVirat Singh Khutal, CEO, Twist Mobile. He added that it's a huge business potential to tap the tourism sector, especially the religious tourism space, providing immersive media platform that can enable brands to engage with customers in an effective interactive way.

Twist Mobile also intends to tap the tier-II & III market, which has the largest number of religious tourists in the country. Twist Mobile has worked with Nokia ecosystem in the past and has generated more than 150-million app downloads.