Build a calling campaign around the people most likely to act.
Navratri 2026 starts on Sunday, 11 October, with the main nine-night period running through Monday, 19 October. Dussehra falls on Tuesday, 20 October. Exact event schedules vary by organiser and community, so confirm your own venue and programme dates before calling.
This guide works for very different businesses: a Garba organiser in Mumbai, a builder's sales office in Mumbai inviting prospects to a festive customer event, or an Indian grocery store in New Jersey running a Navratri promotion. The common problem is the same: you have a list of people to contact, a limited window, and more follow-up work than your team can handle.
The campaign rule
Every call should have one audience, one reason for calling and one clear next action. The more specific those three things are, the easier it is to automate without making the conversation feel random.
Use AI calling where the campaign has a repeatable action.
Separate your Navratri calling list.
Split new leads, existing customers and ticket buyers before you call. A person who has never heard of your event needs an invitation; someone who already registered needs a reminder.
Tag contacts by campaign stage.
AI calling can do this. Use different opening lines for new leads, registration follow-ups, VIP invitations and reminder calls instead of giving everyone the same pitch.
Remove contacts that should not be called.
Check your consent and commercial-communication requirements, including applicable DND/NCPR preferences and the current TRAI framework, before running promotional calls.
Follow up on unfinished ticket enquiries.
Call people who asked for ticket information but did not complete registration. Give the agent the event name, date, venue, ticket options and approved answers to common questions.
Ask whether a lead is actually interested.
AI calling can do this. A simple question such as “Are you looking for passes for this year's Navratri event?” can move the contact into the right follow-up group.
Call previous attendees first.
Someone who attended your Garba night last year already understands the event. Give this group an early-access message, new-event announcement or returning-customer offer where applicable.
Schedule follow-ups when the customer asks.
AI calling can do this. If a lead says, “Call me tomorrow evening,” put that follow-up into the campaign workflow instead of leaving the promise in a salesperson's notebook.
Start your main Mumbai campaign before 11 October.
For a 11 October start, a practical campaign can begin in late September or the first week of October, giving you time to test the script and correct bad data.
Call during the hours your audience answers.
Do not assume that every contact wants a call at 10 a.m. Separate office-going customers, families and business contacts where you have useful information about them.
Run reminder calls before specific event nights.
AI calling can do this. Confirm the date, venue, reporting time, booking status or another detail you have explicitly approved for the campaign.
Create a separate VIP or sponsor campaign.
Sponsors, corporate guests and high-value customers should not receive the same script as general ticket leads. Give this group a shorter invitation and a clear human handoff.
Transfer interested callers to a person.
AI calling can do this. When someone wants a detailed answer, asks about sponsorship, or is ready to speak to sales, route the conversation according to your configured workflow.
Move every call to one clear next action.
That might be opening a ticket link, confirming attendance, speaking to a sales representative or receiving event information through your approved follow-up channel.
Prepare answers before the agent starts.
Do not make the AI answer questions you have not prepared. Cover ticket prices, venue, timings, parking, age rules, cancellation policy and contact escalation.
Capture a structured outcome from every call.
AI calling can do this. Useful outcomes include interested, not interested, call later, already booked, needs human help and wrong number.
Count connected calls, not just numbers dialled.
A list of 5,000 contacts means little if most calls never connect. Track how many people actually answered and how many gave a useful response.
Calculate cost per qualified lead.
If calling spend is ₹12,000 and you get 120 qualified leads, the simple cost per qualified lead is ₹100. Keep ticket revenue and actual conversions separate so the calculation stays honest.
Test two scripts before scaling.
AI calling can do this. Run two openings for similar small batches. Compare answer quality, qualified leads and unwanted-call feedback before using the better version across the list.
Follow up after the event.
Call attendees for the next useful action, such as collecting feedback or inviting them to a future event. Keep the post-event campaign separate from the pre-event ticket push.
Separate “not now” from “never”.
AI calling can do this. A customer who says “not this year” should not automatically be treated like someone who asked for a call after the weekend.
Keep the call simple: identify, invite, qualify, hand off.
Identify
Know which audience group the caller belongs to.
Invite
Give one relevant reason for contacting them.
Qualify
Capture interest, timing and the next useful action.
Handoff
Move detailed or high-intent conversations to your team.
Give the agent a narrow knowledge base
The goal is not to make the AI know everything about your event. Give it the information it needs for the most common conversations and a clear rule for escalating anything else.
- Event name and exact dates
- Venue and approved timings
- Ticket categories and prices
- Parking and access information
- Cancellation or refund policy
- Human escalation rules
- Approved languages
- Follow-up channel and action
Use a different reason to call each audience.
Previous attendees
Start with recognition: they already know the event format. Use early information or a returning-attendee offer where applicable.
New ticket leads
Keep the opening factual. Confirm what they were looking for and answer the next question that stands between them and registration.
Existing customers
If your business already has a relationship with the customer, make the festive invitation relevant to that existing relationship.
VIP guests
Use a shorter invitation and prioritise a human handoff for detailed arrangements, hospitality or special access.
Sponsors
Keep sponsorship conversations separate from consumer ticket campaigns. A sponsor needs commercial information, not a general Garba invitation.
Undecided leads
Ask what is holding them back. Record the reason so the next contact is based on the actual objection rather than a generic reminder.
Warm first
Previous attendees and people who already requested information are usually more useful early targets than a completely unqualified list.
One action
Every script should ask for one next step. Too many choices make an automated call longer and harder to measure.
Human when needed
Automation should remove repetitive work, not trap a customer in a conversation that requires a salesperson.
Choose the channel based on the job, not the habit.
| Channel | Best use | Speed | Personalisation | Human effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI voice calling | Invitations, qualification, reminders and follow-ups | High | High | Low after setup |
| Links, event details, confirmations and written information | High | High | Medium | |
| Manual calling | Complex conversations and high-value personal outreach | Low | Very high | High |
A useful campaign does not have to choose one channel. Use the call to qualify the customer, then move them to the approved next channel for information, registration or human assistance.
Budget from connected minutes, not from the size of your database.
In the Indian market, a practical planning range is around ₹10–₹12 per minute, with per-second billing available in some setups. Confirm the actual commercial terms before budgeting.
Example campaign
10,000 connected calls averaging two minutes each equals 20,000 minutes. At ₹10–₹12 per minute, the usage component is roughly ₹2,00,000–₹2,40,000.
Measure the next number
Do not stop at call cost. Track qualified leads, registrations, attendance and sales so you can see whether the campaign created useful business outcomes.
Simple campaign calculation
Total connected minutes × actual per-minute rate = usage cost. Then compare that cost with the value of qualified leads, registrations or ticket sales produced by the campaign.
Your Mumbai Navratri campaign, stage by stage.
| Stage | Timing for 2026 | Concrete action | AI calling job | Output to track |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Prepare | 21–25 Sep | Clean your contact list and split new leads, past attendees, buyers and VIPs. | Tag campaign groups. | Usable contacts |
| 2. Write | 26–27 Sep | Finalise one 30-second script for each major group. | Load approved scripts and FAQs. | Tested scripts |
| 3. Test | 28–30 Sep | Run a small calling batch. | Make calls and capture outcomes. | Answer rate, interest |
| 4. First campaign | 1–4 Oct | Call warm leads and past attendees. | Invite and qualify. | Qualified leads |
| 5. Follow up | 5–8 Oct | Re-contact people who asked for more information. | Make scheduled follow-ups. | Registrations |
| 6. Final push | 9–10 Oct | Contact undecided high-intent leads. | Give the approved final reminder. | Confirmed bookings |
| 7. Navratri begins | 11 Oct | Send or call only the reminders your customers need. | Confirm relevant event details. | Attendance |
| 8. Mid-campaign | 12–17 Oct | Review which audiences and scripts are producing results. | Adjust campaign groups. | Cost per qualified lead |
| 9. Final nights | 18–19 Oct | Prioritise confirmed attendees and remaining high-intent leads. | Run reminder and follow-up calls. | Attendance and sales |
| 10. Dussehra | 20 Oct | Close the campaign and review results. | Capture final outcomes. | Leads, sales, costs |
| 11. After Navratri | 21–27 Oct | Contact customers who agreed to future communication. | Run post-event follow-up. | Repeat opportunities |
Planning note: Navratri observance and Garba programmes can vary by organiser, city and community. Use your actual event calendar rather than assuming every Mumbai event follows the same schedule.
Lessons from large-scale conversational experiences.
Zomato
Zomato has used conversational AI in customer-facing experiences, including voice-based ordering experiments. The lesson for a smaller organiser is to keep the voice interaction narrow, transactional and easy to complete.
Swiggy
Swiggy has publicly experimented with voice and conversational interfaces for customer interactions. The lesson is to design around the customer's immediate task rather than asking an AI agent to have an unrestricted conversation.
Tata 1mg
Tata 1mg has invested in conversational experiences to make customer interactions easier. For a Navratri campaign, the comparable principle is to prepare the information callers are most likely to ask for and provide a human route when a question falls outside it.
These examples are useful for interaction design. They are not claims that these companies are using AI calling specifically for Mumbai Navratri event marketing.
A 30-second call your team can test today.
Replace every bracketed field before launching the campaign. Keep the first version short. Add detail only when the customer asks for it.
“Hello [Name], I’m calling on behalf of [Business]. We’re inviting customers to [Offer] for Navratri in Mumbai. I wanted to quickly check if you’d like the event details.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“[Offer] is happening during Navratri. I can share the relevant details and help you with the next step. Would you like information about the event?”
“Yes.”
“Great. I’ll send you the approved event information through the follow-up channel you’ve selected. If you have questions that need a person, I can arrange that as well.”
“No, I’m not interested.”
“No problem, [Name]. Thanks for your time. I won’t take any more of your time. Have a good day.”
For Troika Tech campaigns
Troika Tech can configure the AI calling agent around your approved script, FAQs and escalation rules. Troika Tech supports 9+ Indian languages, so you can design the campaign around the languages your audience actually uses.
Six checks before you press start.
- Your contact list is cleaned, segmented and checked against applicable consent and calling-preference requirements.
- Your event date, venue, ticket information and offer are confirmed.
- You have one short script for each audience group.
- Your AI agent has answers for the five to ten questions customers are most likely to ask.
- You have defined when the AI should stop and hand the caller to a person.
- You know which result you will measure: qualified leads, registrations, attendance or sales.
Questions people ask before running the campaign.
AI voice calling uses an automated voice agent to speak with customers by phone rather than requiring your staff to make every call manually. For a Navratri campaign, it can handle invitations, lead qualification, reminders, scheduled follow-ups and defined handoffs to your team.
Start with a defined audience and one action per call. You can contact people who requested ticket information, previous attendees, existing customers or other contacts for whom you have the appropriate permission, then qualify interest and move interested people to the next step.
Yes, AI calling can be designed for Indian-language conversations, but you should test the exact script and voice with your audience before launch. Troika Tech supports 9+ Indian languages, which makes multilingual campaign planning possible without creating a separate manual calling team for every language.
Pricing depends on the provider, call duration, infrastructure and campaign requirements. In the Indian market, a practical planning range is around ₹10–₹12 per minute, with per-second billing available in some setups; confirm the actual commercial terms before budgeting.
For example, 10,000 connected calls averaging two minutes would mean 20,000 minutes. At ₹10–₹12 per minute, the usage component would be roughly ₹2,00,000–₹2,40,000 before any other applicable costs or commercial terms. Your real campaign budget should be based on connected-call duration, not simply the number of contacts uploaded.
You need to follow India's applicable commercial-communication rules, including TRAI requirements around consent, customer preferences and promotional communications. Do not treat an uploaded phone list as automatic permission to make promotional calls; check the current requirements and your communication setup before launching.
Sharad Navratri begins on 11 October 2026 and the nine-day observance ends on 19 October. Dussehra is on 20 October 2026. Individual Mumbai Garba and Dandiya events can use different dates and timings, so your campaign should use the exact schedule published by your organiser or venue.
For an event beginning on 11 October, start preparing your list and scripts at least two to three weeks earlier. A useful working schedule is to test calls around the end of September, run the main warm-lead campaign in the first week of October, and reserve 9–10 October for high-intent follow-up and final reminders.
Start with one audience and one script.
Do not begin with 10,000 calls. Start with a clean, manageable test group, one script, one audience and one measurable outcome. If you want Troika Tech to run the calling workflow, define the audience, script, languages, FAQs and human handoff rules first; Troika Tech's fully managed AI calling can typically be live in 3–7 days, depending on the campaign setup.
Use the script and build your test campaign