In a year where immersive design and cultural storytelling are redefining the boundaries of technology, Katha Room has emerged as a beacon of innovation. The app, nominated as a Finalist in the Apple Design Awards 2026 under the Social Impact category, represents a deeply human mission: to take Indian regional stories to children across the world.
For Parjanya Creative Solutions, this recognition is the culmination of a journey spanning over 16 years of building for the Apple ecosystem, six years of nurturing Parjanya, and two intense years of shaping Katha Room. “We are beyond humbled, thrilled, and honestly still processing this,” the team shared, reflecting the emotional weight of the nomination.
At its core, Katha Room began with a simple belief: Indian stories deserve to travel the world. This belief has been consistently nurtured through earlier projects like Prayoga, Vedike, and Immersive India, each committed to showcasing India’s cultural richness on global platforms.
What sets Katha Room apart is its design philosophy. The app embraces Liquid Glass, weaving its interface around the ancient Indian art form of Gond painting. It integrates Foundation models to enhance interactivity, yet remains steadfastly kid-friendly, ensuring accessibility without compromising on cultural depth. This fusion of tradition and cutting-edge technology is what makes the nomination in Social Impact especially meaningful.
The journey has been collaborative. Co-Founder krishnaprasad J credits Harish K. (ScalePeak), Raksha Rao, and designer Rajdeep Singha as pivotal partners in bringing Katha Room to life. Together, they’ve built not just an app, but a cultural bridge—one that carries the voices of India’s billion untold stories to children worldwide.
Katha Room is more than an app; it’s a statement. It demonstrates how immersive design can transcend entertainment to become a vessel of cultural preservation and global storytelling. In an era where technology often risks erasing local identities, Katha Room proves that innovation can amplify them instead.
As the Apple Design Awards spotlight this work, the recognition feels like a small but significant step toward a larger vision: making Indian regional stories part of the global childhood imagination. And as Krishnaprasad Jagadish and his team put it, “India has a billion stories untold, and we are just getting started.”
