Katalyst Reputation Management

Every brand has a spark.
We're here to Katalyze it.

We build the stories, spaces and social conversations behind some of India's most loved restaurants, hotels and lifestyle names. Publicity, design, digital and strategy, run by one team, aimed at one reaction: recall.

Our Story

The training ground, and everything after.

Almost two decades in luxury marketing, PR and communications — the first seven as Head of PR, Marketing & Communications for The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai and its sister properties, and the eleven years since spent building Katalyst into what it is today.

The Training Ground

Seven years, inside the room

Head of PR, Marketing & Communications for The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai — learning the industry from the inside, not the outside.

Katalyst Is Founded

A different kind of agency

Eleven years ago, built on a simple belief: a brand's reputation isn't managed, it's authored — with strategy, design and storytelling as one discipline, not three.

The Years Since

Building icons, not just campaigns

A portfolio of restaurants, hotels and founders we didn't just promote, but helped define — the proof is in the work below.

What We Offer

Five disciplines. One chain reaction.

Reputation & PR

Publicity, told properly

We don't manage a narrative, we write the one worth telling — media relations, brand image and coverage that reads like a story, not a press release.

Design & Branding

A visual language you live in

Packaging, print, menus, merchandise — the kind of design that's recognised before it's even read.

Digital & Social

Followers into a family

We turn a feed into a place people actually want to visit, and visitors into a community that stays.

Marketing & Strategy

The right moment, on purpose

Calendars, campaigns and media planning built to meet your customer exactly when it matters — not just whenever.

Recruitment & Training

The people behind the story

We help find, train and retain the people who bring a brand's story to life on the ground, every single day — not just the campaign that introduces it.

Our Work

A few of the brands we've helped become icons.

Proven Track Record
India's Most Awarded Standalone
Masque

We joined Masque before its executive kitchen changed hands, and helped shape it into the most awarded standalone restaurant in the country's history — the one that put modern Indian ingredients on the map. We looked at the brand through the lens of the ingredient itself, which led to India's first tasting-only menu, no à la carte in sight.

Terrace-to-Table, Coined From Scratch
Candy & Green

The founder wanted a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30. We found her rooftop, thick with microgreens she was growing herself, and built a concept around it: carbon-free dining and terrace-to-table, the next chapter after farm-to-fork. The recognition followed.

Archives, Art Tours & Storytelling
The Taj Grand Palaces

Across the Taj Grand Palaces portfolio, our work lives in the details — the archival walls that tell each property's history, a curated Art Tour, the Palaces menu and merchandise, and the suite-by-suite storytelling that turns a stay into a story.

New Age Nostalgia
The Scarlett House

For Malaika Arora Khan's Scarlett House, we rebuilt the brand's core identity as "new age nostalgia" — and opened with a menu we couldn't have written for anyone else: Christmas with Joyce, conceptualised dish-by-dish by her mother. Because at Scarlett House, home food is the whole story.

A Neo-Botanical Restaurant, Launched From Zero
Soraia

We launched Soraia from the ground up as a neo-botanical restaurant, its menu split not into small plates and large but into Seed, Earth, Fire and Air — desserts light as air, mains crafted across different fires. Even the bar told a story: a journey across India's terrain, from ghats and plateaus to deserts and dunes.

The City's First Members' Bar
Fielia

Just above Soraia, we conceived Fielia as the city's first members-only bar and restaurant, built around supper theatre and cocktail cinema, because the bar itself is cinematic. Every new edition launches like a film premiere — the first, Sins and Scandal, built its food around the seven sins and its cocktails around scandal.

A Name Synonymous With Modern Indian
Masala Library

Years of work behind one of the most recognised names in modern Indian cuisine, built alongside its celebrated kitchen — proof that a cuisine's reinvention needs a storyteller as much as a chef.

49 Acres of Storytelling
The St. Regis Goa Resort

Spread across 49 acres in South Goa, The St. Regis Goa Resort is one of the most beautiful luxury resorts in the country — and we've spent years helping the world know it, through storytelling, editorial profiling and the right awards conversations, building it into one of India's most recognised luxury addresses.

Relaunching Restaurants, Building Recognition
JW Marriott Kolkata

For JW Marriott Kolkata, we've helped relaunch and reintroduce several of its restaurants, including some of its most iconic, award-winning ones, building the recognition that comes with a proper second debut.

Recently Launched
A Duplex Ode to the World
Sorena

Our newest launch, Sorena is a duplex dining restaurant built as an ode to five of the world's most iconic cosmopolitan cities — Tokyo, Istanbul, Mumbai, New York and Sicily. The design, the artefacts, the layout and the menu are all a tribute to these five worlds, and every cocktail is a portrait of the personas within them. We even composed Sorena's own anthem, played every evening at ten o'clock, because here, every corner has a story.

A French-Inspired Masterclass
Sofitel

For Sofitel's flagship in BKC, Mumbai, we kicked things off with an immersive chocolate-making masterclass, pairing beautifully with their French-inspired brand. Guests experienced Chef Nilesh crafting chocolate entirely from scratch — tempered shells, ganache and filling, every element in exacting detail. It's the first of many experiences to come.

Coming Soon
Coming Next
RAGA by Gaggan Anand

Our newest chapter: RAGA, the upcoming venture from Chef Gaggan Anand, one of the most celebrated chefs in the world. We're honoured to help build its story from day one.

Bandra's Legacy, Reintroduced
Pali Bhavan

Pali Bhavan is a legacy restaurant that stood the test of time in Bandra, and has now moved to Eros, Churchgate. We're bringing its story with it, reintroducing the iconic Pali Bhavan to South Mumbai, legacy intact.

Eco-Conscious Living
Paashh

Paashh is a new eco-sustainable, sustained-living concept, brought to life with Chef Ajay Chopra. We're building its brand story from the ground up.

Nikhila Palat
Founder & Strategic / Creative Head

Seven years inside Taj, personally shaping outlet-level identity and design across four properties — including The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai. Eleven years since, building Katalyst. Double MBA in Marketing, with diplomas from Harvard University and Glion, Switzerland. Spearheaded the Taj Coffee Table Magazine, placed in every room across the Taj Group.

Why Katalyst

We know this world from the inside.

We've sat where you're sitting — inside the launch, inside the kitchen, inside the 2am press query — which is why our solutions are built for speed, not just for slides. Senior hands on every account, faster course-correction, and pricing that respects your P&L as much as your brand.

Over the last decade, that's added up to more than 20 of the country's most recognised brand launches across hospitality, real estate, jewellery and F&B — backed by named press coverage and a Best Design Agency win from the icons of Whisky India. It's also why we can offer what most single-category agencies can't: PR, design, marketing, social and recruitment, under one senior team — the reach of a multinational agency, with the attention of a boutique.

Let's Start Something

Tell us where the spark should go.

Whether it's a launch, a relaunch, or a reputation that just needs a better storyteller, send us the brief. We'll take it from there.

Prefer a direct line? Write to us at nikhila@katalystrm.com
or call +91 98200 33396
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