Dominic West recalled the 2013 Mahakumbh in Prayag as “spotlessly clean,” despite what he described as a gathering of more than 100 million people. By contrast, he jokingly remembered Glastonbury as “absolutely disgusting” and smelly. Those are the actor’s personal impressions, shared in a Hindustan Times interview—not independently verified attendance figures or a like-for-like cleanliness assessment.
What did Dominic West say about the Kumbh Mela and Glastonbury?
In an interview with Hindustan Times journalist Abhimanyu Mathur, updated October 2, 2026, West recalled visiting the Mahakumbh at Prayag in 2013 with his friend James Mallinson, a Sanskrit scholar. The article says Mallinson was ordained as a mahant during the visit.
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West described the Kumbh Mela as “spotlessly clean” and said there was “no horrible smell.” He contrasted that memory with a later visit to Glastonbury, which he described as “absolutely disgusting” because of the smells. Hindustan Times characterized his Glastonbury remark as tongue-in-cheek.
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West also recalled the Kumbh gathering as involving “over a hundred million people,” while putting Glastonbury at 80,000. These are his descriptions and estimates as reported in the interview, not figures independently established by the article. Read the Hindustan Times interview.
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What did West recall about food and bathing?
West connected his recollection of the event with its food and bathing practices. He said: “There’s no meat, there’s no booze, and there’s no onions and garlic.” He also recalled that people washed three times a day.
These statements describe what West remembered experiencing; the interview does not establish that the practices applied to every attendee or show that they caused the cleanliness he observed.
Does the comparison prove the Kumbh Mela was cleaner?
No. West’s account is a personal recollection, not a controlled comparison between the two festivals. The interview supplies no standardized definition of cleanliness, independently verified crowd counts, or comparable sanitation data. It supports reporting what West said he saw and smelled, but it cannot establish which event was cleaner or why.
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The conversation took place while West was discussing the series War. Hindustan Times reported that the series premiered on HBO and HBO Max on October 1 and was streaming on JioHotstar in India at the time of publication. Streaming availability can change by date and region.
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