Start with the festival calendar, not the call list.
In 2026, Sharadiya Navratri runs from 11 October to 19 October, while Kolkata's main Durga Puja celebrations run from 17 October to 21 October.
This guide is useful if you run a pandal or cultural event in Kolkata, a restaurant organising a Navratri programme, or a local retailer selling festive offers. It is also useful outside Kolkata when your audience is spread across India.
Important local distinction: terminology varies by region and community. In eastern India, the October festive period is strongly associated with Durga Puja, so use the name your audience actually uses.
Kolkata event organiser
Invite visitors, confirm attendance, handle programme questions and route sponsorship enquiries.
Ahmedabad retail shop
Call existing customers about a festive offer and separate interested buyers from people who decline.
Mumbai builder's office
Invite prospects to a Navratri property event and send serious enquiries to a sales representative.
Build a calling list that has a job.
Split contacts by action
Keep separate lists for RSVP prospects, previous visitors, sponsors, customers, vendors and people who have already asked about the event.
Reactivate warm contacts
Export last year's event visitors, existing customers and previous enquiries. For a 17–21 October event, begin this reactivation in late September once your details are confirmed.
Give every call one outcome
Choose one action: confirm attendance, reserve a seat, request a callback, visit the venue or speak to a salesperson.
Clean the numbers first
Deduplicate your spreadsheet and remove contacts who have opted out or whose numbers are invalid. Keep name, number, source, language, interest and call outcome.
17 practical calls to make before, during and after the event.
One agent. One defined job.
AI calling works best when the agent has a narrow workflow, approved information and a clear rule for when a person should take over.
Use the right language
Prepare English and Bengali versions for Kolkata. Add other Indian languages when your audience needs them.
Qualify with one question
Ask what matters for the next action: party size, sponsorship interest, preferred date or request for a callback.
Offer language choice early
Prepare English and Bengali versions of the opening instead of assuming every Kolkata contact wants an English call.
AI calling can do this.
Follow up RSVP prospects
From 12–15 October, ask undecided contacts whether they plan to attend an event scheduled for 17 October or another confirmed date.
AI calling can do this.
Ask one qualification question
For a restaurant, ask party size. For a sponsor, ask the type of visibility they want. For a venue, ask whether they want the schedule or a callback.
AI calling can do this.
Route high-value enquiries
Define triggers such as “sponsorship”, “bulk booking”, “large group” or “speak to someone” before the campaign starts.
AI calling can do this.
Use a different script for customers
An existing customer does not need a generic introduction. Start with the relationship and the specific festive offer.
Confirm practical details
Reminders should contain date, time, venue, entry requirement, booking reference and where to ask questions.
AI calling can do this.
Set a no-answer rule
Decide how many attempts you will make and when. One initial attempt, one later attempt and then “no response” is a workable starting rule.
Separate callback requests
A callback request is not the same as “not interested”. Keep the reason for the callback with the contact.
AI calling can do this.
Answer repeated operational questions
Turn approved answers about timing, registration and programme details into a short call flow. Do not let the AI invent answers.
Recover interested non-attendees
After the event, ask selected contacts whether they want information about the next programme or offer.
AI calling can do this.
Ask one useful feedback question
For example: “What would you most like us to improve next time?” Record a category you can actually use.
Follow up sponsors separately
A sponsor needs a business conversation, not an attendee survey. Send serious commercial discussions to a human.
AI calling can do this.
Build next year's list
Keep attended, did not attend, interested, language preference, enquiry type and requested follow-up as useful campaign fields.
Keep the workflow simple enough to audit.
The agent should not be responsible for deciding what your business has not decided. Give it approved information, defined questions and clear escalation rules.
Upload
Start with a clean contact list and audience segment.
Call
Use a short, approved script in the required language.
Qualify
Capture the answer and classify the contact.
Handoff
Send complex or high-value conversations to your team.
For Kolkata, prepare the agent around five fixed answers.
- Event date and programme timing
- Venue and basic access information
- Registration or RSVP process
- Offer, booking or sponsorship details
- Human callback or escalation rule
- Opt-out and consent handling
AI calling vs manual calling.
Use AI for repeatable conversations. Keep human callers for situations where judgement, negotiation or relationship management matters.
| Task | AI calling | Human caller | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Event invitation | Yes | Yes | Use AI for a defined invitation script. |
| RSVP confirmation | Yes | Yes | AI works well when the questions are fixed. |
| Simple FAQs | Yes | Yes | Give the agent approved answers only. |
| Sponsorship negotiation | Assist | Yes | Escalate serious commercial discussions. |
| Complex complaint | Assist | Yes | Route to a trained person. |
Budget the campaign by minutes, not just contacts.
Call duration matters. A list of 5,000 contacts can produce a very different bill depending on connection rates, retries and average talk time.
₹10–₹12/min
Indicative market range for Troika Tech's per-second AI calling model. Confirm the actual campaign quote before budgeting.
1,000 minutes
At ₹10–₹12 per minute, that is approximately ₹10,000–₹12,000 before separately applicable setup or integration charges.
Track outcomes
Measure connected calls, qualified leads, callbacks, confirmed attendance and opt-outs alongside total minutes.
Simple budgeting rule: estimate contacts × expected connected-call minutes, then add a separate allowance for retries. Treat the result as a planning estimate, not a final quote.
Screenshot this: the 2026 Kolkata campaign plan.
Use your confirmed event schedule as the source of truth. The dates below give you a practical sequence around the 2026 festival calendar.
| Stage | Date / timing | Concrete action | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare | By 25 Sep | Finalise event dates, venue, offer, FAQ and calling list. | Name, number, source, language |
| Segment | 26–28 Sep | Separate customers, previous attendees, sponsors, prospects and vendors. | Audience type |
| Test | 29–30 Sep | Test opening, pronunciation, objections and human handoff. | Test outcome |
| First outreach | 1–7 Oct | Call warm contacts and people who already expressed interest. | Interested / no / callback |
| Navratri begins | 11 Oct | Start event-specific follow-up for confirmed and undecided contacts. | RSVP status |
| Qualification | 12–16 Oct | Call undecided prospects and answer approved event questions. | Intent and question |
| Durga Puja begins | 17 Oct | Call or send practical reminders to confirmed attendees where appropriate. | Attendance confirmation |
| Peak days | 17–20 Oct | Handle enquiries, callbacks and high-priority leads. | Enquiry / escalation |
| Dashami | 21 Oct | Close event-specific attendance follow-up. | Attended / did not attend |
| Post-event | 22–27 Oct | Ask selected attendees for feedback and follow up with business leads. | Feedback / sales follow-up |
| Review | By 30 Oct | Compare calls, connections, qualified leads and completed actions. | Campaign performance |
Lessons from real AI deployments.
Swiggy
Swiggy has used agentic AI across customer-facing areas including Instamart and Dineout. The lesson for a small business is to put AI inside one real workflow rather than building a vague general-purpose assistant.
Tata Steel
Tata Steel has deployed AI agents across operational areas. The useful lesson is to define the task first: “qualify this enquiry” is easier to control than “handle all customer communication”.
Sarvam
Sarvam has described a Maharashtra government voice-AI programme using automated calls for structured citizen feedback. The lesson is to decide what information you need before the call starts.
A 30-second event call you can adapt today.
AI agent: “Hello, is this [Name]? I’m calling from [Business]. We’re inviting customers to our [Offer] for the Navratri/Durga Puja season in Kolkata. Can I quickly tell you the details?”
Customer: “Yes, what is it?”
AI agent: “It is on [Date] at [Venue]. We’re offering [Offer]. Would you like me to note you down as interested and have our team share the details?”
Customer: “No, I’m not interested.”
AI agent: “No problem, [Name]. I won’t take any more of your time. Thank you, and have a good day.”
If they say yes: “Would you like a callback from our team, or would you like to confirm your attendance now?”
For a Bengali-speaking audience, prepare a properly reviewed Bengali version rather than relying on a literal machine translation. Troika Tech can configure the AI calling flow around supported Indian languages and the specific questions you want the agent to ask.
Launch only when these six boxes are checked.
- Your 2026 event date, venue, timing and offer are confirmed.
- Your contact list is cleaned, deduplicated and separated by audience.
- Your Bengali, English or multilingual scripts have been reviewed by a human.
- You have defined interested lead, callback and opt-out outcomes.
- Human escalation rules are written for sponsorships, bulk bookings and complex questions.
- Your campaign has a start date, retry rule and final follow-up date.
Questions people ask before they start.
It can call selected contacts to invite them, qualify interest, confirm attendance, answer approved event questions and route important enquiries to your team. It is most useful when you already have a defined list and a clear action you want the caller to take.
Sharadiya Navratri is listed as 11 October to 19 October 2026. Kolkata's main Durga Puja period is 17 October to 21 October 2026, ending with Dashami. Terminology and observances vary by region: in eastern India, the same broader festive period is strongly associated with Durga Puja rather than the Navratri format used in Gujarat or North India.
Yes, multilingual voice agents can be configured for Indian-language conversations, but you should test pronunciation, names, place names and local expressions before launching. Troika Tech supports 9+ Indian languages, so choose the language mix based on your actual audience rather than assuming English will work for everyone.
It can handle a defined RSVP flow, such as confirming attendance, collecting a small number of details and passing qualified requests to your team. For payments, complex registrations or unusual questions, send the caller to your approved booking process or a human.
Pricing depends on call duration, provider, telephony setup, language, integrations and campaign volume. Troika Tech operates with per-second billing and is positioned in the ₹10–₹12 per-minute market range; treat that as an indicative range rather than a guaranteed quote.
At ₹10–₹12 per minute, 1,000 minutes would be approximately ₹10,000–₹12,000 before any separately applicable setup, integration or other charges. Confirm the actual campaign price before budgeting.
They can support high-volume outbound campaigns, but you should not treat every number as a valid target. Start with consent, data quality, calling rules, retry limits and a clear escalation process, then scale the campaign.
You need to design the campaign around applicable telecom, consent, DND and commercial-calling requirements. Do not assume that having a phone number gives you permission to make promotional calls; have your calling setup and templates reviewed for the specific campaign before launch.
Turn your event list into a campaign this week.
Divide your Kolkata event list into warm prospects, confirmed attendees, sponsors or partners and previous visitors. Write one desired outcome for each group, prepare the 30-second script, and test ten calls manually before putting the campaign into an AI calling workflow.
If you want Troika Tech to run the workflow, give the team those four lists, your approved script and your escalation rules so the agent can be configured around the work you actually need done.
Review the launch checklist