ABD Maestro launches “Bar Maestro”, a winning platform to celebrate India’s growing bar-skill and creator community
ABD Maestro Pvt. Ltd., the super-premium and luxury spirits subsidiary of Allied Blenders & Distillers Limited (ABD), in association with Tulleeho – India’s foremost bar and beverage education platform today announced its inaugural multi-city bartending and skill competition in “Bar Maestro”. The aim is to enable bar skills as a creative, high quality and consistent process to give India’s cocktail artists the platform, recognition, and career-defining moment they deserve.
Rolling out from 15th June 2026 across Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Goa, Pune, Bangalore, and Kolkata, Bar Maestro is a celebration of craft and the people behind it. Central to the competition is the creative use of ABD Maestro’s brand portfolio in three different flavours: RANGEELA Contemporary Indian Vodka, ZOYA Special Batch Gin, and WOODBURNS Contemporary Indian Whisky – each offering bartenders a distinct canvas to showcase their artistry. Bar Maestro is structured as a three-round progressive competition, each designed to push bartending talent further from individual craft to regional identity, to national stage.
The first-round invites bartenders to showcase their creativity by submitting an original signature Highball cocktail that reflects their respective city and culture. From there, the most exciting entries will earn a spot in the next stage, where finalists will be challenged to reinvent their craft by creating three unique cocktails, each featuring an unexpected twist inspired by a local ingredient, regional story, or distinctive element of their surroundings.
Commenting on the initiation of the “Bar Maestro” IP, Bikram Basu, Managing Director, ABD Maestro, said: “The Indian bar and cocktail culture is going through a significant and positive discovery. The bartender or mixologist, enabled by a supportive ecosystem, is the central artist of this consumer experience. Top bartenders are now at the tipping point of where Indian chefs were 15 years back. Waiting to explode as a creative community, generating interest, their own following and very importantly, revenue. Many good things will follow is my belief. With ‘Bar Maestro’, and annual IP, we are working towards working with Indian talent on a national and global level. In Tulleeho and Vikram, and their decades of evangelist work, we trust. One very special ingredient we add to the winners are a meet with our co-founder, superstar Ranveer Singh.”
Vikram Achanta, Founder, Tulleeho adds, “Tulleeho has always believed that the bar industry in India is brimming with extraordinary talent that rarely gets the spotlight it deserves. Bar Maestro is about changing that, recognising the bartender not just as a professional, but as a cultural contributor to the city they work in.”
Bar Maestro marks a significant step in ABD Maestro’s commitment to building a community-first approach to spirits — one that places the people behind the bar at the heart of the story. In association with Tulleeho, whose credibility spans over a decade of bar education and industry development, the IP is designed to carry weight within the trade as much as it does with consumers.
