Tata Trusts launches dementia awareness campaign on identity loss

MUMBAI: When memories begin to fade, what often gets overlooked is everything else that makes a person them. Tata Trusts has launched ‘Vajood Rahe Maujood’, a dementia awareness campaign that shifts the focus from memory loss to the gradual erosion of identity, relationships and independence.

Launched during World Alzheimer’s Month, the campaign draws on qualitative research involving people living with early-stage dementia, caregivers and medical experts. Its central film encourages families to notice subtle changes, start conversations earlier and take steps to preserve the identity of loved ones for as long as possible.

The campaign takes aim at a familiar response to ageing in India: dismissing early signs as ordinary forgetfulness. Expressions such as ‘Budhapa aa gaya!’ and ‘Bhulne ki bimari’ can make changes associated with dementia easier to overlook, according to the Tata Trusts.

Instead, Vajood Rahe Maujood looks beyond the symptoms to what dementia can gradually take away — a person’s familiar roles, relationships and everyday abilities. The issue is expected to become increasingly significant as India’s population ages, with the country projected to have more than 347 million people aged 60 and above by 2050.

Shilpi Ghosh, head, brand and marketing communications, Tata Trusts, said a lack of awareness, along with misestimation and dismissal of symptoms, remains a major barrier to addressing dementia in India. She said the campaign deliberately focuses on people showing mild symptoms to encourage earlier behavioural change and action.

The campaign’s research also highlighted another hurdle: the lack of accessible regional-language vocabulary to describe dementia and its early changes. Kalyan Challapalli, founder and chief of strategy, Wolfzhowl, the agency behind the strategic communications, said this absence can make the condition harder to recognise and discuss. The agency describes dementia’s wider impact across patients, caregivers, families, healthcare and the economy as a ‘Butterfly Effect’.

The campaign’s central film uses a mother-son relationship to make those less visible changes tangible. Geeta Agarwal Sharma, known for Laapataa Ladies and 12th Fail, plays a mother showing early signs of dementia, while Priyanshu Painyuli, known for Mirzapur and Extraction, plays her son and primary caregiver.

Rather than packaging the message as a conventional public-service announcement, the creative uses a short-film format to allow viewers to watch the relationship change gradually. A poem written by the son for his mother’s birthday becomes the device through which he approaches a difficult conversation about her condition, with care positioned as the greatest gift.

Keigan Pinto, creative chief, writer and director, said the challenge was to make identity loss visible without reducing dementia to a checklist of symptoms. The campaign’s tagline, Vajood Rahe Maujood, captures its broader aim of encouraging people to act towards preserving a person’s identity for as long as possible.

The casting also makes a deliberate point about caregiving. By placing a son in the role of primary caregiver, the campaign seeks to encourage greater participation by men in caregiving and family conversations, while reflecting the disproportionate impact of dementia on women, according to the Trusts.

Early action forms another important part of the campaign’s message. The Tata Trusts says an estimated 45 per cent of dementia cases could potentially be prevented or delayed, while changes associated with dementia can begin 10–20 years before symptoms become apparent. The figures underline the campaign’s push for greater awareness, screening and earlier diagnosis.

With Vajood Rahe Maujood, the Tata Trusts is asking families to look beyond the question of whether someone is forgetting and notice who they may be slowly being prevented from remaining.