India

TV show Hamari Sister Didi conveys health messages; Global Vipassana Pagoda in Mumbai; street scenes include entertainment posters.

Hollywood, Health & Society and its Indian partners have served as a resource for TV and screenwriters in the entertainment industry of India since 2012, conducting over 250 consultations with television programs that reach tens of millions of viewers on a wide variety of health topics—maternal/child health, reproductive health, vaccines, water and sanitation, environmental health and others. Most recently, HH&S created a short film on palliative care that was screened on TV, in movie theaters and online, reaching hundreds of millions of viewers.

Palliative Care: ‘Say No To Pain’ Campaign

Hollywood Health and Society helped produce Say No To Pain, an educational short video, to generate awareness about palliative care, and also to offer information on how pain should be viewed in its totality. In addition to physical pain, patients suffering from terminal illnesses and life limiting diseases must suffer the anguish of emotional, social and spiritual pain as well. The video, which features Dr. MR Rajagopal, known as the father of palliative care in India, is an honest attempt to bring home that point, and to also guide people on how the concept of “total pain” can be relieved through medication.

Filmmaker Insia Dariwala (right) and team shooting educational video “Say No To Pain” in Kerala, India; Dariwala (upper right) is also Hollywood, Health & Society’s consultant based in Mumbai; still image taken from the short video on palliative care.

Hamari Sister Didi

HH&S and The Third Eye also conducted an audience impact study on Hamari Sister Didi (viewership approx. 119 million) to measure audience knowledge of the pentavalent vaccine. The results of this study suggest the program was associated with increases in knowledge and more supportive attitudes related to vaccination. Moreover, relative to rare viewers, regular viewers (those who watched at least once a week) had stronger outcomes related to the pentavalent vaccine. Read the report

Both the Indian medical drama Ek Nayi Ummeed–Roshni (left) and the soap opera Beti Ka Farz have had consultations through The Third Eye.
Balaji shows Kasam (left), Kalash-Ek Vishwaas and Yeh Hain Mohabbatein; India entertainment is part of robust global media landscape.