Neeta Bhasin is the driving force behind the iconic Diwali at Times Square event

Neeta Bhasin, who spearheaded the iconic Diwali at Times Square event, moved to New York from Haridwar with her parents in 1977. While she started her career with a data entry job with $85 weekly earnings, EventGuru Company, a part of ASB Communications, an advertising and marketing company she set up in 1998, launched the Diwali at Times Square festival in Manhattan in 2013. “I established EventGuru Company to showcase India’s rich art, culture, and diversity to America and the world. This was achieved by inviting Indian American performers, representing the various Indian states, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and many others, to the event,” Bhasin told the Times of India.
Dubbed as the biggest Diwali festival in the world outside India, Diwali at Times Square has become a landmark event over the years. “The challenges we have overcome each year to make this event possible are a testament to my team's hard work and perseverance. This year, we are reaching the 10th-anniversary milestone,” Bhasin, who was appointed to the New York State Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Commission in 2024, said. The commission makes policy recommendations to enhance the economic and social well-being of communities.
Bhasin was also part of the New York City Diwali school holiday campaign. “I was an integral part of the campaign, spearheaded by New York Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar and supported by the NYC mayor and NY state governor. In 2023, New York, the largest school system in America, became the first city to officially declare Diwali a school holiday. In 2023, US Representative Grace Meng (Democrat, NY), introduced the Diwali Day Act, a Bill to make Diwali a federal holiday. There has been plenty of lobbying to make Diwali a federal holiday,” she said. Significantly, in 2024, Pennsylvania became the first state in the US to declare Diwali an official public holiday. Now, other states, too, are considering doing the same.

When planning the first Diwali event at the Times Square, Bhasin was thinking of reaching out to Indian Americans as well as mainstream Americans. And while there are now many high-profile events around the US to celebrate Diwali, the event at Times Square remains iconic. “The driving force behind my efforts to organise Diwali at Times Square was when I realised that most Americans are unfamiliar with our culture. Additionally, I observed that the younger generation of Indian Americans were not attending our cultural events as actively as before,” she said.
She wanted the event to take India to mainstream America, educate Americans and engage, and encourage the next generation of Indian Americans to participate in the festival, share their culture and stories with their American friends, and invite them to participate in the Diwali at Times Square celebrations.
“Times Square is the biggest crossroads in the world, with over 400,000 pedestrian footfalls daily and over 180,000 people working around the area, providing a unique opportunity to reach mainstream Americans and tourists from around the world. Diwali, a national festival of India, is celebrated not only by Indians but also by Hindus from other South Asian countries and Indo-Caribbeans in the USA. Around seven million Hindus in the USA celebrate Diwali,” Bhasin said about the event, which took two years of planning initially.
After deciding on the venue, the challenge was making the festival appealing to all age groups within the community. “We divided the festival into three parts to ensure we cover all age groups of South Asians and mainstream Americans,” she recollected.
The different parts of the programme include Diwali Bazaar; Colors of India and America, where dance performances of different states of India by local talent from the USA and performers from diverse cultural backgrounds are showcased; Diya lighting with a countdown ceremony on the tallest screen in Times Square and the new award and gala dinner to honour exceptional achievements of Indian Americans in the USA in different categories. Besides the NYC mayor, the consulate of India, NY, also supports Diwali at Times Square.
Bhasin is excited about Diwali at Times Square this year because it's the tenth anniversary. “The North American cities of Houston, San Francisco, and Toronto, will join the celebration on October 12, 2025, in a live broadcast from Times Square. People from across the world can join us in person and experience the energy of the community celebrating together in the centre of the Universe—Times Square—or watch the live broadcast on the Diwali at Times Square YouTube channel,” she said.