AnantRang 2025: India’s First Cultural Festival on Mental Health Redefines the Conversation Around Well-being

POSTED By, 7th OCTOBER, 2025 (RMN/ MRUNALI  8850212023)

Mumbai,(RMN) : 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.”