Mumbai, 10 October 2025: On World Mental Health Day, Mumbai witnessed a transformative celebration of mind and culture as the Welspun Foundation hosted the first edition of Mental Health festival called AnantRang at Sahara Star. AnantRang is our country’s first-ever cultural festival dedicated to mental health was inaugurated by legendary poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar and Apex members of Welspun World, setting the tone for a day that blended art, dialogue, and lived experience to reimagine how India talks about mental health.
AnantRang brought together over 600 participants, including artists, educators, psychologists, policy experts and creators, to offer them a first-of-its-kind platform to explore mental health as both a personal and cultural journey.
Unlike conventional summits that focus primarily on clinical and policy gaps, AnantRang approached mental health through a cultural lens based in science; examining how India’s stories, families, workplaces, and creative traditions shape 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 Day
Across eight curated sessions, AnantRang examined mental health from multiple perspectives, highlighting how culture, identity, and emotion shape India’s collective psyche.
Poetry, Perspective and the Mind, led by Javed Akhtar and moderated by Deepak Kashyap, explored how poetry and storytelling help reclaim personal narratives, turning words into instruments of resilience and self-discovery. On the role of literature, Mr. Akhtar said, “reading good literature creates empathy. 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.
A Platform for Cultural Healing
The event also featured an uplifting Kathak dance performance by Shanaya Rathore, whose graceful storytelling through movement energized the audience while embodying the concept of healing through movement. Through music, poetry, films, and workshops, AnantRang fostered open dialogue and community-driven healing, reinforcing the evidence-based role of culture and creative expression in improving mental well-being. Following its success, the Welspun Foundation plans to make AnantRang an annual platform that brings together voices from across disciplines to mainstream mental health through art, culture, and dialogue.
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