From Birlas to Viswanathan Anand, titans who ruled at ETPanache Trendsetter Awards

‘You have arrived’.These three words against a gritty brick façade greeted guests at the first ever ETPanache Trendsetter Awards at the Trident in Mumbai on Friday.

And with those words, the tone for an exclusive gathering was set.

The evening was to honour young achievers who have played by their own rules. They were feted by titans like Kumar Mangalam Birla, Harsh Goenka, Viswanathan Anand, Kalpana Morparia, Shikha Sharma, N Chandrasekaran, Schauna and Nadia Chauhan, Nirav Modi, Ajay Bijli, and Atul and Alka Nishar.


TCS CEO N Chandrasekaran (left) presents the ETPanache Trendsetting CEO Award to Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder, Hike (BCCL).

As the guest list was select — nearly 200 names from business, cinema and sports — an invitation to the evening was a coveted possession. Trendsetters from India Inc walked the red carpet along with sports and entertainment luminaries. The mix of tradition, professions and mindsets reflected on the fashion. Evening wear rubbed shoulders with lumber sexual aesthetic.


The Times of India Group's Vineet Jain (left) presents the ETPnache Trendsetting Entrepreneur Award to Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma (BCCL).

distances to attend the event. Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia came from Dubai. Vijay Shekhar Sharma flew from Delhi, attended the ceremony and left for China. Atul Nishar cut his US trip short to make it to the awards. The bar opened and the room filled. The audio dropped Buddha Bar beats. A giant LED screen the width of the room with a moving image of a beach at sunset added to the ambience. As the evening progressed, the sky in the image also got darker.


Axis Bank's Shikha Sharma (left) presents the ETPanache Young Business Person Award to Curocarte's Ananya Birla (BCCL).

Old friends and new ones kicked off the weekend on a high note. Acquaintances were made. Potential alliances were discussed. The event, designed and produced by Fountainhead MKTG, began with jazz. Rhys Sebastian on the saxophone and Shalmali Kholgade on vocals performed before the awards kicked off. The theme of the evening was to reject convention, so there were no boring thank-you speeches. Instead, winners were asked an unconventional question, challenging them to think on their feet.


RPG Enterprises Chairman, Harsh Goenka (left) presents the ETPanache Trendsetting Workspace Award to Myntra's CEO, Ananth Narayanan (BCCL).

You don’t have to be at the Super Bowl for a foot-tapping halftime show. The Shiamak Davar troupe took over the stage and danced to ‘All That Jazz’, ‘Roxy’ and ‘Burlesque’. Once the pulses in the room returned to normal the second session of the awards followed. Arguably the loudest applause of the evening greeted the Paralympians, Devendra Jhajharia and Mariyappan Thangavelu, when they were presented their awards by grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.

The awards had concluded, but the evening hadn’t. The stage was converted into a bar and the after-party started. So if you think corporate and picture suits and ties, greys and blacks, you may to have readjust that idea.