Through its Arts and Culture initiatives, Asar aims to humanise climate conversations and bring them into everyday public spaces rather than confining them to expert/policy circles.
Fever Dream: We co-created this play on heat with theatre group Tafreehwale. The play has run 10 shows across Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune since its launch in October 2025.
In 2026, the show has run in three cities so far – two in Mumbai (Rangshila, Versova, and NGMA on March 12 and 13), one in Pune (The Box Too on March 14), and two in Delhi ( WIP Adda Labs and Akshara Theatre on July 3 and 4). The play has received encouraging response from the audience and as a next step we are planning to take Fever Dream to Punjab and other tier-two cities.
The Great Indian Ukada, a Marathi musical on heat co-produced by theatre group Vanyavani Foundation (in collaboration with Asar, the Mumbai Botanical Garden and Zoo and the BMC) was launched on World Environment Day this year. Blending of traditional folk music with high-energy dance, and sharp satire, the play talked about how climate and particularly the intense heatwaves (“ukada”) don’t just impacting people but also the wildlife of Maharashtra. The play incorporated hard scientific data in its script and made it accessible through storytelling and cultural metaphors. The play served as both a reflection of Mumbai’s (and its peripheral forests) changing landscape and a call to action for urban conservation.
Scriptwriters’ Huddle on Climate Storytelling: The Climate Culture Collaborative/Asar convened a Scriptwriters’ Huddle in Mumbai on 15 May 2026, bringing together around 25 leading screenwriters, filmmakers and creative professionals to explore how climate can be woven into mainstream film and television narratives. Rather than treating climate as a niche subject, the huddle focused on integrating environmental realities into compelling, character-driven stories across genres, while fostering collaborations between the creative community and climate experts to make climate storytelling more relatable and culturally resonant.
Climate Mixers: Asar organised Climate Mixers — informal networking and brainstorming spaces for climate practitioners, researchers, communicators, artists and enthusiasts. The first one was hosted during Mumbai Climate Week with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Youth Ki Awaaz, Talk Dharti to Me, and Capital Social in Mumbai on 18 February 2026. The second one was hosted in Bengaluru on 21 May 2026. Designed to move beyond traditional panel discussions, these gatherings fostered cross-sector conversations, encouraged the exchange of ideas and experiences, and helped spark new collaborations to strengthen climate communication and action.