The Banquet Hall is also known as the State Dining room.
The Banquet Hall epitomizes the artistic wealth in ornate details. This room is one hundred and four feet long, thirty-four wide and thirty-five feet high overlooks Amrit Udyan flanking towards one of its side. Burmese teak paneling decorates the walls of the Banquet Hall while the floors are patterned in grey kota stone and white makrana marble. One can notice the silent bell motifs, carved in wood, over the fluted projecting columns, and the similar ones are placed above the Tuscan pillars of the Forecourt.
These twenty eight pilasters are thirteen feet tall and are made from a single log of the Burmese teak wood. Above the wainscoting is a beautiful display of intricate zardozi panels, crafted with gold and silver threads. However, they are a recent addition to the Banquet Hall, as earlier the walls exhibited a collection of medieval arms. The expansive height of the room is offset by four chandeliers in linearity, illuminating the expansive room in entirety.
The large canvas paintings in the medium of oil grace the walls of the Banquet Hall such as (Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Dr. Zakir Husain, V.V. Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Sanjeeva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh, R Venkataraman, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma and K R Narayanan) painted by eminent Indian modern artists. These paintings are embellished with gold leaf frames. Placed at the southern end of the Banquet Hall is a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Banquet Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan boasts of the capacity of seating up to one hundred and four people at a time. It is used for the purpose of hosting banquets by the President of India for their visiting counterparts across the globe. Earlier the Banquet Hall was also used by the Prime Minister to host banquets for other heads of government. That practice has since been discontinued with the venue for such engagements being shifted to Hyderabad House in the 1980s. A band gallery is situated on a mezzanine floor at the southern end. This gallery which is known as the musician's gallery is vibrantly used to play music during the banquets. Due to the high walls of this gallery, the musicians cannot be seen by the diners.
Another noteworthy detail of the Banquet Hall lies in the usage of three discreet lights. The Head Butler, who stands at the southern end of the table during banquets overseeing the preparations and serving, is the controller of these lights, which are placed high on the teak panels. While the blue light indicates the meals to be brought in at the Banquet Hall, green light is used to indicate the start of service and red is used as an indication of clearing the plates after every course. It is a meticulous task which is carried out with utmost precision and coordination by the head butler (small) of Rashtrapati Bhavan and his efficient team. The identification of a vegetarian diner from a non-vegetarian one is also done thoughtfully with elegance by placing a small red rose vase in front of the vegetarian diner.
