Indore-based Twist Mobile, a mobile gaming startup backed by Matrix Partners India, has ventured into Virtual Reality (VR) in religious tourism space. The move approved by the investor will tap a huge untapped religious space for virtual reality, starting with Kumbh Mela at Ujjain.

Kumbh mela traditionally has four Kumbh mela organised — Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain Kumbh Mela. Held once in 12 years, it is considered as world’s largest congregation of religious pilgrims.

The one-month-long Ujjain Kumbh Mela, starting from 21st April, will also witness a large portion of people visiting the Mahakaal temple and the pain area for the management is to cater to such a large crowd.

“We expect 50-million visitors at the Kumbh Mela,” said SS Rawat, Deputy Mela officer, Government of Madhya Pradesh, adding that with VR 360 technology visuals of Mahakaal Bhasam Aarti and hopefully many people may opt for VR darshan of the Mahakaal aarti, which could ease the crowd pressure at 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” said Virat Singh Khutal, CEO, Twist Mobile. He said 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 had worked with Nokia ecosystem and has generated more than 150-million app downloads. people can experience immersive.

Source: The Economic Times