Kaunteya doesn’t do plain plates, it stages a spectacle. Myths, legends, and folk tales sprawl across porcelain canvases, framed by gold and garnished with conversation. This was always Sonal Jetha’s endgame. After 20 years in advertising, she decided the world didn’t need another campaign—it needed a table that could talk back. “I used to visit fairs and meet artisans since childhood. If you visit my house, you’ll find it to be overflowing with Indian artefacts and paintings. It is a collection I have been nurturing for ages,” she says. And in 2019, she finally turned her obsession into Kaunteya—a brand that refuses to let Indian art stay framed on walls. Instead, it lands on dinner tables in the chicest way possible.
Each collection is a mood. The pastel Pichwai series is all lotuses and cows, quietly elegant. The Airavata series is ochre-and-blue Patachitra realness, a celestial shout-out to the vahanas of Hindu gods. “We try not to modify the artform, but to twist it so that it is traditional yet functionally appropriate for the modern table,” Jetha says. And the process? Painstaking, like couture. Jetha picks an art form, works with artisans to decode its details, screen-prints it onto porcelain, and finally edges it in 24-carat gold.
Then there’s the Byah series, which turns the Rajasthani Phad tradition into a black-and-gold wedding saga you can actually eat off. “Phad is originally a bold artform,” says Jetha, “but we present it subtly, minimising colour so that it feels rich, yet not overdone.”
For Jetha, the table is performance art. “The tableware is crafted to be a conversation starter, making diners ponder on the tales in front of their eyes and have real conversations inspired by them,” she says.
These are not just plates. They’re heirlooms-in-the-making, designed to outlast trends and be passed down like secret recipes. And Kaunteya is nowhere near done. Gond art and Southern Indian traditions are next on Jetha’s radar. Jetha says, “Venturing deep into these art forms reveals how advanced Indian artists have been historically. This is why I want to present it in the most luxurious manner.”
This isn’t dinnerware, it’s couture.