Mahindra Rise’s Father’s Day film challenges assumptions children make about dads

MUMBAI: Familiarity may breed comfort, but it can also breed assumptions. That is the idea at the heart of a new Father’s Day campaign from Mahindra Rise, which is encouraging families to ask a simple question that many never do: who is Dad beyond the role he plays every day?

Titled Ask Dad About Dad, the film shifts the spotlight away from traditional Father’s Day celebrations and towards the unseen stories, fears, dreams and emotions that often remain unspoken within families.

Built around a straightforward concept, the campaign asks children what they truly know about their fathers. Questions range from childhood ambitions and personal fears to what genuinely makes them happy and how they cope with difficult days. The responses reveal a recurring pattern: many children confidently answer, only to discover that their assumptions do not always match reality.

The campaign forms part of Mahindra Rise’s long-running #RethinkTheBias platform, which examines how preconceived notions influence the way people see the world. This time, however, the focus is not on strangers or social stereotypes. Instead, it turns inward, highlighting the assumptions people make about those closest to them.

Developed in partnership with creative agency Schbang, the film takes a documentary-style approach. Rather than hiring actors, the brand invited seven of its own employees and their families to participate. The families arrived without scripts, rehearsals or preparation, facing questions many had never asked one another before.

Produced by 1947 Films, the resulting conversations capture unscripted moments of surprise, reflection and emotional honesty. Across all seven families, a common theme emerged: children often misunderstood key aspects of their fathers’ lives, not through neglect, but simply because those conversations had never happened.

The film also taps into a broader social reality. Research cited by the campaign suggests that while most people want deeper family connections, meaningful conversations are often postponed or avoided altogether. Rather than making that point through statistics alone, the campaign demonstrates it through real-life interactions.

By focusing on curiosity rather than celebration, Mahindra Rise is positioning the campaign as an invitation to strengthen relationships through dialogue. Its message is intentionally simple: meaningful connections often begin with a single question.

As the campaign rolls out across digital and social platforms, audiences are being encouraged to start conversations of their own and share them using the hashtags #AskDadAboutDad and #RethinkTheBias. In a world where families often assume they know everything about one another, the film suggests there may still be plenty left to discover.