A night at India’s massive Kumbh Mela

The Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious gathering, is a six-week long event being hosted in India’s Prayagraj city. The BBC filmed through the night at the Mela to answer one question – does this convergence of hundreds of millions of people ever go to sleep? The festival, which began on 13 January, will conclude on 26 February.

This video was recorded before the deadly crush at the Kumbh Mela on 29 January. Thirty people were killed and 60 injured in the incident, according to official numbers.

Video by Antriksha Pathania, Anahita Sachdev

Drone footage and production by Ankit Srinivas