Five editions ago, when the conversation surrounding the Chettinad Heritage and Cultural Festival first began, the approvals were frankly straightforward. “Yacob George [late general manager, The Bangla, a heritage guesthouse in Karaikudi] asked if we could do it, and I said yes,” says one of founders and a member of the family that owns of The Bangala, Meenakshi Meyyappan.

Leela Samson curated the first edition with around 70-80 guests. “We knew that she was the person for the job. She chartered out the whole programme and that is how the first edition went,” says Mrs. Meyyappan. Over the years, the festival which takes people through a nuanced understanding of the Nattukottai Chettiars, their traditions and customs, became bigger. There were tours of century-old mansions with symmetric Burma teak pillars and lit by Belgian chandeliers and Italian marble flooring. These were built, mostly in the 19th Century by the mercantile Chettiar community, who travelled and worked all over South-East Asia, according to an article in The Hindu.