EXCLUSIVE: Jahnavi Mehta aims to chart her own path, opens up on stint with TEG

Jahnavi Mehta had big boots to fill considering her illustrious lineage with mother Juhi Chawla, a legendary Bollywood star, and father Jay Mehta being a successful businessman. But their daughter is honing her skills to one day play a ‘leadership’ role in the world of sports in India.

Currently, Jahnavi is working in the event management sector based in the United States. In an EXCLUSIVE interview to India.com, Jahnavi revealed her current job profile and experience of working behind the scenes during Team India’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign in the US.

“I work in the event space because I think the World Cup really did a number on me and I enjoyed the rush of seeing events come together. Hearing a crowd roar and knowing that you were involved in some way and getting all these people into the building add to the experience for me,” Jahnavi Mehta told India.com in an exclusive interview.

“So I now work at a company called TEG, which is based in Australia, and they are an event promoter but they set up a North American office in early 2024. We’re a very small but lean team and work mainly in sports sector especially Rugby. I was in Chicago recently, for the All Blacks vs Ireland rugby match, at Soldier Field, which is the NFL Stadium in Chicago.

“It was a sellout match with 60000 people in the building. Experiences like this are just epic. And seeing events come together, at that kind of scale, it’s very special,” she added.

“I’ve been really lucky to have these kinds of experiences so far. I think I’m quite spoiled.”

Lucky enough to work at the T20 World Cup 2024: Jahnavi Mehta

Team India won their second T20 World Cup title after a wait of 17 years under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner’s daughter worked behind the scenes during the ICC event as well.

“I was lucky enough to work at the T20 World Cup last year in the US. It was definitely one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It was also one of the most intense as well because it was literally a 24-7 job.

“I basically worked on the ticketing team. So that was a lot of fun. I had joined that organization two months before the World Cup was due to begin. It was based here in New York, the Nassau County Stadium – which sadly is now no longer there – and they played eight matches there including India vs Pakistan. So it was just intense work every day,” Jahnavi recalled.

“There was something new and different to do. At a new venue obviously you have to build the whole seat map, then start carving out tickets and work on the pricing. It was constant updates and work, especially when it came to ticket distribution because the venue was under construction until May. When you are still under construction, nothing is finalized in terms of ticketing until everything is complete. So there was a big rush in the last few weeks of May to really get all the tickets out for each game.

“I was involved in all eight games in New York, including the warm-up match between India and Bangladesh.  I think it never quite dawned on me before this just how much goes into the operational side of these events. To make an event run smoothly, there are so many pieces to it. There’s was the ticketing aspect which I had a lot of exposure to but also worked on access control. Then the crowd control aspect, which we were involved in a bit, because again it’s a new venue and you need to make sure that for a game like India vs Pakistan, you do not want people missing half the game due to queues outside the gates,” she recalled.

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