The Tata Trusts have launched ‘Vajood Rahe Maujood’, a touching campaign film on dementia awareness for World Alzheimer’s Month. The campaign seeks to shift the conversation around the condition from memory loss to the gradual loss of identity.
The campaign is based on insights from people living with early-stage dementia, caregivers and medical experts. It highlights how dementia can progressively affect the roles, relationships and everyday abilities that shape a person’s sense of self.
Through a film, the campaign aims to help families recognize early changes, start conversations sooner, and take steps to preserve the identity of their loved ones for as long as possible.
Early signs of dementia in India are often dismissed as old age, or reduced to forgetfulness. The campaign centers on the gradual erosion of identity of the patient as the disease progresses, which it describes as an often-invisible consequence of the condition.
India’s population is ageing rapidly. By 2050, India is projected to be home to more than 347 million people aged 60 and above.
“Of the various barriers that Dementia faces in India, the biggest is a lack of awareness – the misestimation, the misattribution, the dismissal,” said Shilpi Ghosh, Head, Brand & Marketing Communications, Tata Trusts.
“Addressing patients exhibiting mild symptoms was therefore a conscious choice of audience for nudging behavior change. And when ‘loss of identity’ and its various dimensions across the stages of the disease, were uncovered as an insight, we knew we had something powerful to work with, that would lead to captivating communication that was persuasive and not preachy.”
Kalyan Challapalli, Founder & Chief of Strategy, Wolfzhowl, the agency that developed the strategic communications for the campaign, said the research highlighted that dementia cannot be addressed as a health issue alone, given its impact on caregivers, families, the healthcare ecosystem and the economy.
“Our qualitative research showed us that dementia cannot be addressed as a health issue alone. Its impact ripples through caregivers, families, the healthcare ecosystem, and even the economy,” said Challapalli.
“We capture this interconnected impact through what we describe as ‘The Butterfly Effect’, highlighting why dementia requires a concerted response across the ecosystem. An interesting insight that emerged from our interactions was the absence of regional-language vocabulary to describe the diseases and its early changes. This makes the disease easier for people to dismiss. Because you cannot ask people to recognise what they do not have the language to describe. The campaign thus, offers a common ground that hopefully makes the condition easier to decipher, talk about and act on, in homes and communities, not just in clinics.”
“The creative challenge was to make something as invisible as identity loss felt without reducing dementia to a list of symptoms. That is why we chose to make this a short film rather than a conventional public service announcement,” said Keigan Pinto, Creative Chief, Writer and Director.
“We wanted to give the audience enough time to inhabit an everyday relationship and notice the small shifts that can otherwise be overlooked. The poem which the son wrote for his mother on her birthday is a creative device used to carry the message of care as the greatest gift. Through the poem, the son has a difficult conversation with his mother, while empathising with her. Vajood Rahe Maujood, the tagline sums up the vision of this campaign, to encourage more people to act towards preserving their identity for as long as possible.”
The film features Geeta Agarwal Sharma as a mother demonstrating early signs of dementia and Priyanshu Painyuli as her son and primary caregiver.
According to the campaign, the choice of a woman as the protagonist reflects the disproportionate impact of dementia on women, while the caregiving dynamic is deliberately inverted to place the son in the role of primary caregiver. The campaign aims to encourage more men to participate actively in caregiving and initiate difficult but necessary conversations around dementia within families.
An estimated 45% of dementia cases are potentially preventable or delayable. Changes associated with dementia can also begin 10-20 years before symptoms become apparent.
Through ‘Vajood Rahe Maujood’, the Tata Trusts hope viewers will notice the little shifts, start important conversations and work towards preserving the identity of their loved ones for longer.
Established in 1892, the Tata Trusts are India’s oldest and amongst Asia’s largest philanthropic institutions.
