In an effort to start conversations and marking the occasion of World Mental Health Day, short-video app Josh has released a series of three films aimed at raising awareness around the issues of one’s mental health with a specific focus on depression. Through its NoNeedToAct campaign, Josh attempts to question people’s current behaviour and actions towards mental health in India by giving viewers an understanding of depression from the perspective of those battling it. The campaign was conceptualised and executed by What’s Your Problem – A Wondrlab company.
In India, conversations around mental health are still taboo and are often riddled with embarrassment, which makes it harder to address those issues, Samir Vora, CMO, VerSe Innovation said. “People shouldn’t have to ‘act’ to hide their depression. We, as a society, need to start conversations around mental health issues so people suffering from them can be comfortable talking about it. Because acting should only be done on camera, not in real life,” he added.
The campaign shows three individuals suffering from depression as professional actors. The films were made to look like an acting masterclass wherein these veteran ‘actors’ give the audience tips and tricks that they used to get better at playing their characters, the company stated. The reveal was that they weren’t professional actors but were forced to act so they could hide their depression.
According to Amit Akali, co-founder and CCO, Wondrlab, Palash Shrotriya and Prakhar Deogrikar – the creative team, Baudhayan Mukherji – the director, and some of the team members, spent hours with psychiatrists understanding what people going through depression, experience, listening to patients and what they went through. “As an individual, and a team, breaking the taboo around mental health is something we all believe in. In the past few years, we’ve seen the most unexpected people take drastic measures, which means they were forced to hide their issues. Thus came the idea of packaging the experiences of people fighting depression as an ‘Acting Masterclass’. It’s been one of the most difficult projects of our life,” he highlighted.
For this campaign, Josh has partnered with Vandrevala Foundation and encourages all to seek help while destigmatising the topic by having open conversations.
Also Read: Havas Media Group bags Firefox’s integrated media mandate