Alappuzha, August 22, 2026: In a result that will be remembered as one of the great debut stories in the history of Kerala’s snake boat racing tradition, Aroma Chundan, the newly launched boat of the Aroma Boat Club, stormed to victory in the 72nd Nehru Trophy Boat Race on Punnamada Lake on Saturday – edging out Nadubhagam Chundan by a razor-thin margin of just 0.120 second in one of the closest finishes the event has ever witnessed.
Behind this remarkable triumph stands the Aroma Group, promoters of Fragrant Nature Hotels & Resorts, led by Chairman Mr. Sajeev Joseph and Managing Director Ms. Annie Sajeev. The couple’s son, Mr. Ranjith Sajeev, led the winning crew as Captain – becoming, in the process, one of the youngest captains in the history of the Nehru Trophy to lift the coveted title.
Aroma Chundan’s win was made all the more historic by the fact that it came in the boat’s very first appearance at the Nehru Trophy. The Vallam, launched only recently by the Aroma Group, was built with a clear and ambitious mandate – to bring home both the Nehru Trophy and the Champions Boat League snake boat racing championship. Achieving the former in its debut season is being seen within Kerala’s boat racing circles as an extraordinary statement of intent.
Speaking on the historic win, Mr. Sajeev Joseph, Chairman, Aroma Group, said the victory was the result of a vision the family had nurtured for years – to take Kerala’s snake boat racing tradition beyond the state and onto the global stage, using the sport as a powerful tool to showcase Kerala and its backwaters to the world. He added that Aroma Boat Club was conceived as Kerala’s first professional snake boat team to be initiated by a private concern, built with the same passion, discipline and long-term vision that the Aroma Group has brought to its hospitality ventures under Fragrant Nature Hotels & Resorts.
Ms. Annie Sajeev, Managing Director, Aroma Group, said the win on Punnamada was deeply personal for the family, and that Aroma Chundan was built not merely to compete but to carry forward Kerala’s Vallam Kali heritage with pride and professionalism. She noted that the team’s rowers were deliberately drawn entirely from the Kuttanad region, home to the very tradition the sport represents, and that these are oarsmen for whom rowing is not a skill learned but a way of life inherited – men who have grown up amid the backwaters and lakes of Kuttanad and understand its waters as intimately as they understand themselves.
Captain Ranjith Sajeev, reflecting on the win, described it as a moment of overwhelming pride and disbelief – leading a debutant team to victory in Kerala’s most prestigious and fiercely contested boat race, in only its first attempt, at such a young age, being an experience he said he would carry with him for the rest of his life. He credited the crew’s Kuttanad roots as the team’s greatest strength, saying that rowers who have grown up with the rhythm of the backwaters in their blood bring an instinct to the race that cannot be taught.
Aroma Chundan’s crossing time of 4 minutes 23.328 seconds – just 0.120 second ahead of Nadubhagam Chundan’s 4:23.448 – capped a dramatic final in which all four finalists crossed the line within 0.687 second of one another, before a crowd of thousands gathered along the banks of Punnamada.
With the Nehru Trophy now secured in its debut season, the Aroma Group’s attention turns to the Champions Boat League, where Aroma Chundan is expected to be among the boats to watch as Kerala’s newest and most ambitious entrant in the world of professional snake boat racing looks to carry the state’s backwater legacy to an international audience.
