Future Generali Insurance portrays sports icons' mental health struggles through ‘Mind Matters' series

Future Generali India Insurance has launched the third phase of its #HealthInsideOut campaign. In this phase, the brand is featuring India’s sports legends in a five-part video series called ‘Mind Matters’, conceptualised by What’s Your Problem (a Wondrlab company). Actor Samir Kochhar has conducted the insightful interviews with the sportspeople.

The series features much-loved icons from sports such as football, cricket, tennis and shooting coming forward to share their stories of dealing with anxiety and depression. Sports personalities are looked on as beacons of grit and success, but hardly anyone notices the self-doubt and mental health battles they have to overcome to achieve that focus.

Ruchika Varma

Speaking about the campaign, Ruchika Varma, Chief Marketing Officer, Future Generali India Insurance, said, “At Future Generali India Insurance, we are persistently working towards normalising the conversation around mental health and creating awareness that all of us are susceptible to mental health issues, and it is okay to come forward, discuss and seek help. In that context, sports celebrities are perfect role models as they bring alive the importance of mental health issues in sports, a profession where one would think that physical health is the most important. Our ‘Mind Matters’ talk show brings to life a never-seen-before side of the sports personas – their challenges, struggles and triumphs with mental illness. We are sure that their inspiring stories will send a strong message to a larger audience to pay heed to their mental wellbeing and proactively discuss challenges when the need arises.” 

Rakesh Hinduja

Added Rakesh Hinduja, Co-Founder & Managing Partner – Content Platform, Wondrlab, said, “Today, branded content has to be dynamic and platform-based. Thus, our third campaign for Future Generali #HealthInsideOut is ‘Mind Matters’, a video content property that takes ahead the objective of normalising mental health. It is a talk show that addresses the never-seen-before side of sports personalities, who are always considered to be the epitome of fitness. So, when a fan watches their favourite sports personality open up about their mental health journey, their challenges, struggles, and triumphs over mental illness, it should give them the courage to do the same. We were very clear that each episode should not be more than 15 minutes long as we wanted it to be indulgent enough for people to take home the message but not overbearing that they switch off. We hope that these stories will pave the way for a lot of people to reach out for help and take care of their mental wellbeing during these trying times.”

Mind Matters’ first episode features the legendary Sunil Chhetri, who captains the Indian football team as well as the Indian Super League side’s Bengaluru FC. The other legends who will be seen in subsequent episodes include Sania Mirza, Robin Uthappa, Cheteshwar Pujara and Abhinav Bindra.

Watch the first four episodes here:

Sunil Chhetri:

Robin Uthappa:

Cheteshwar Pujara - 

Sania Mirza -