Air India Express launches docu-series on Northeast’s indigenous traditions

For most airlines, expanding into a new region is measured in additional routes, aircraft utilisation and passenger numbers. Air India Express, however, is betting that aviation can also become a vehicle for cultural diplomacy.

With the launch of Voices of the Land: Tales of Northeast, a six-part documentary series that premiered on JioHotstar on Thursday, the Tata Group-owned carrier is attempting to tell a different story about India’s Northeast—one that shifts attention from geography and connectivity to indigenous knowledge, cultural identity and the communities that have shaped the region for centuries.

Produced in association with Edstead and Dentsu Sports and Entertainment, the series forms part of the airline’s broader Tales of India initiative, which has increasingly sought to position the carrier not merely as a transport provider but as a curator of India’s cultural diversity.

Hosted by actor Adarsh Gourav, the documentary travels through Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, documenting the lives and traditions of indigenous communities including the Angami, Khasi, Sherdukpen, Biate and Mising. Rather than focusing on tourist landmarks, the series explores oral histories, traditional craftsmanship, music, folklore and the intimate relationship these communities maintain with their natural surroundings.

The emphasis is on living traditions rather than museum pieces.

The project arrives at a time when the Northeast is witnessing unprecedented improvements in physical connectivity. New highways, rail links and airports have reduced the region’s relative isolation, while airlines have steadily expanded domestic and international services. Yet cultural experts argue that greater accessibility does not automatically translate into a deeper understanding of the region’s extraordinary diversity.

Home to hundreds of tribes and languages, the Northeast has long remained underrepresented in mainstream Indian narratives, often viewed through the prism of security concerns, border politics or tourism marketing. Projects such as Voices of the Land seek to replace these narrow narratives with stories rooted in community memory and indigenous knowledge.

For Air India Express, the documentary complements an evolving brand strategy that has increasingly woven regional culture into its identity. The airline’s aircraft already feature tail art inspired by traditional textiles and indigenous motifs from across India, including Tsüngkotepsü from Nagaland, Gamosa and Jaapi from Assam, Moirang Phee from Manipur, Khneng from Meghalaya and Puanchei from Mizoram.

These visual elements have become a distinctive feature of the airline’s branding, reflecting an effort to make culture as recognisable as its route network.

“Travel, at its inherent best, is transformative, offering the opportunity to discover, experience and reshape our worldview,” said Siddhartha Butalia, Chief Marketing Officer of Air India Express. He said the stories emerging from Northeast India reflected enduring traditions of harmony between indigenous communities and their environment and deserved a wider audience.

For Gourav, the journey became an education in ecological wisdom. He said filming the series revealed the remarkable understanding that local communities possess of forests, wildlife and natural ecosystems—knowledge accumulated over generations and increasingly relevant in an era defined by climate change and biodiversity loss.

The filmmakers also sought to avoid reducing the region to picturesque landscapes. Instead, they focused on everyday life, allowing community members to narrate their own histories through music, rituals, craftsmanship and lived experience.

Simantini Ghosh, National Head of Dentsu Sports and Entertainment India, said the project emerged from the belief that many of India’s most compelling stories remain unheard because they exist outside mainstream cultural conversations. Improved connectivity, she said, created an opportunity not only to move people but also to bridge cultural distances.

Shekhar Bhattacharjee, founder of Edstead, described the series as an effort to amplify voices that rarely receive national attention, while capturing the cultural richness of the region with sensitivity and authenticity.

The documentary’s release also coincides with Air India Express’s continued expansion across the Northeast. The airline currently operates more than 290 weekly flights from Agartala, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Guwahati and Imphal and is preparing to launch the region’s first direct services to West Asia, connecting Guwahati with Abu Dhabi and Dubai from August.

The timing is significant. Better air links promise to stimulate tourism, trade and investment, but they also raise questions about preserving local identities as the region becomes more integrated into national and global markets.

By pairing network expansion with cultural storytelling, Air India Express appears to be making the case that connectivity should not merely shorten distances; it should also deepen understanding.

Whether branded content can meaningfully reshape public perceptions remains to be seen. Yet in an increasingly competitive aviation market, where airlines are searching for identities that extend beyond fares and schedules, Voices of the Land represents an unusual experiment—using cinema to complement connectivity and positioning indigenous heritage not as a niche subject, but as an integral part of India’s national story.

In doing so, the airline is wagering that the most enduring journeys may not be measured only in miles flown, but in stories carried from one part of the country to another.

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