Aaradhya Bachchan and cousin Agastya Nanda’s rare moment lights up the Bachchan family Diwali celebrations

The festival of lights brought out a rare sight for Bachchan family watchers this year: Aaradhya Bachchan enjoying the festivities with Agastya Nanda. The moment came from Navya Naveli Nanda, who gave fans a look at how the family marked Diwali.

What Navya shared

Navya posted a set of pictures on Instagram on Sunday. She wore a red halter-neck palazzo set and appeared alongside close friends, including Ananya Panday. The family frames were the highlight. In one, her uncle Abhishek Bachchan and her mother, Shweta Bachchan, lit fuljhadis (sparklers) together. In another, Agastya and Aaradhya posed arm in arm for the camera.

Navya captioned the post “Happiest of Diwali’s with my very own.” Ananya replied in the comments with “You are my light.”

How fans reacted

Followers were thrilled to see Aaradhya with her cousins, and several said they would love a picture of all three of them together. Others noticed who was missing. A few asked why Aishwarya Rai Bachchan did not appear in any of the photos.

Who’s who

Navya and Agastya are the children of Shweta Bachchan and businessman Nikhil Nanda, and the grandchildren of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan. Agastya started his acting career with Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies. Navya is an entrepreneur and co-founded Aara Health, a platform focused on women’s healthcare. Aaradhya is the daughter of Abhishek and Aishwarya.

Abhishek on Aaradhya’s playlist: Ariana Grande and more

Aaradhya’s own interests came up recently when Abhishek talked about music. In an interview with BBC Asian Network, he said that on a summer holiday abroad, Aaradhya took him and Aishwarya to an Ariana Grande concert. He admitted he didn’t know any of the songs before he went. He left a fan anyway, saying “that woman could sing.” He was also struck by the singer’s vocal quality and by how devoted young pop stars’ fans are.

He had a message for people his age who write off today’s pop stars: these artists are very talented and make genuinely good music, Taylor Swift included.

Abhishek said Aaradhya had introduced him to many international artistes. With a 14-year-old at home, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande play often. He added, with some relief, that she also loves 80s music and is now listening to Bon Jovi, Van Halen and Metallica. He called her taste eclectic and joked that this suits him fine. His own favourites are classic Hindi film music: Kishore Kumar, RD Burman, SD Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal and Bappi Lahiri.