In a groundbreaking celebration that fused mind and culture, the Welspun Foundation hosted AnantRang 2025 — India’s first-ever cultural festival dedicated to mental health — at Sahara Star, Mumbai. Coinciding with World Mental Health Day, the festival marked a new chapter in how India perceives and discusses emotional well-being.
The festival was inaugurated by legendary poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, alongside apex members of Welspun World, setting the stage for a powerful day of art, dialogue, and lived experience. With over 600 participants, including artists, educators, psychologists, policy experts, and creators, AnantRang offered a rare platform to explore mental health as both a personal journey and a cultural conversation.
Unlike conventional summits that often focus on medical or infrastructural aspects, AnantRang approached mental health through the lens of culture — examining how India’s stories, families, workplaces, and creative traditions shape collective emotional well-being.
Much of India’s mental health coverage still circles around stigma, ignorance, or infrastructure gaps,” said Deepak Kashyap, President & Chief Culture Officer, Welspun Group. “With AnantRang, we wanted to shift the narrative to see mental health not just as a personal or medical concern, but as a cultural priority that defines how we live, work, raise families, and care for one another. The festival centered around evidence-based communication of the science and culture of psychology”
Themes That Defined the Festival
Across eight curated sessions, AnantRang delved deep into how identity, culture, and emotion influence the way India engages with mental health.
One of the most compelling sessions, “Poetry, Perspective and the Mind”, led by Javed Akhtar and moderated by Deepak Kashyap, explored how storytelling and poetry can help reclaim personal narratives, turning words into instruments of resilience and healing.
“Reading good literature creates empathy,” said Mr. Akhtar. “Through literature, one encounters different characters, circumstances, and perspectives, all of which help readers understand others better and develop empathy.”
- Lights, Camera, Mental Health with Tanuja Chandra, Ghazal Dhaliwal, and Sumona Chakravarti examined how cinema can move beyond stereotypes to build empathy through storytelling.
- Mind the Policy Gap: Mental Health in India brought together Adv. Asim Sarode, Vishwajeet Deshmukh, Swapnil Pange, and Rupa Chaubal to discuss how law, policy, and clinical practice can collaborate for accessible, humane mental health care.
- Beyond Good Vibes: The Cost of Toxic Positivity with Dr. Anjali Chhabria, Ishant Kumar, and Saleha Yohann challenged the culture of relentless optimism that often silences pain and hinders healing.
- Beyond 377: Queer Mental Health in India, featuring Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, Zainab Patel, Shruti Chakravarty, and Anish Gawande, spotlighted post-377 challenges through personal stories of identity, acceptance, and resilience.
- Parenting in Modern India with Dr. Samindara Sawant and Snigdha Mishra reflected on raising emotionally resilient children in an increasingly complex world.
- Gut Feelings, led by Arati Kedia, showcased how body-based therapies like dance and psychodrama help release emotions that words cannot express.
The festival seamlessly blended performative arts, expert dialogues, interactive installations, and lived experiences, creating an immersive environment where mental health was discussed without stigma — but with creativity, science, and sensitivity.
As conversations around well-being continue to gain momentum in India, AnantRang 2025 stands out as a pioneering initiative that transforms mental health from a whispered concern into a vibrant cultural dialogue.
