A citizens’ climate movement, rooted in India
Future Tense
Igniting the stories that make the climate crisis visible, and action unstoppable.
With BANG BANG Mediacorp, TERI and The Climate Party
Mairu Gupta
CEO, Antkind Collective
Confidential · for the named recipient only
↗
Chennai ran out of water.
MONGABAY · JUL 2019
↗
49.9°C. Delhi's hottest ever.
AL JAZEERA · MAY 2024
↗
Smog breaks the pollution record.
AL JAZEERA · NOV 2024
↗
Wayanad buried in one night.
AL JAZEERA · AUG 2024
↗
Bengaluru ran dry before summer.
AL JAZEERA · MAR 2024
↗
A glacial lake took out a dam.
AL JAZEERA · OCT 2023
↗
Delhi lives by tanker.
CONTEXT/TRF · JUN 2024
↗
Gig work in 'hellfire.'
AL JAZEERA · JUN 2024
↗
Smoke visible from space.
NASA · NOV 2024
↗
The Alphonso is burning.
MONGABAY · MAY 2025
This is already happening.
The case · 01 of 03
3%
of Indian climate coverage names climate change as the cause
People are living climate change every day and
filing it under bad luck, bad weather, or bad governance.
3.5%
Floods
2.9%
Landslides
1.7%
Cyclones
11.7%
Drought
The case · 02 of 03
And the content that reaches them asks for the wrong thing
It asks for altruism from people who are already paying for the cost of climate change.
Stories offering something to do
Most people have never been shown a single action that is theirs to take.
Who gets credited with coping
Dealing with climate is not something most Indians see as theirs to do.
The case · 03 of 03 · the thesis
Everyone else asks you to care about the planet.
We make it about what it
costs you.
The missing piece isn't more information. It's stories that give people selfish, personal reasons to care, wrapped in entertainment they'd choose to watch even if it had nothing to do with climate.
Sea level rise is an abstraction. Your apartment losing half its value is not.
A citizens’ climate movement by Antkind Collective
Future
Tense
Rooted in India · built for the world
Five films to make the cost personal, and a year of content, tools and community building so anyone who cares can act on it.
5
Hero films ·
3 to 5 min
~35
Marquee pieces
~160
Short-form · across 12 months
SEASON ONE SLATE
Black Mirror for climate
Five films, five realities
No.
Film
Reality
Setting
01
Forbidden Fruit
Food
Mumbai, 2055
02
Killing Heat
Heat
Chennai, 2060
03
Cut Off
Water
Bengaluru, 2055
04
The Lost City of Colaba
Flooding
Mumbai, 2100
05
Priced In
Air
Delhi, 2055
Film 01 · Food · Jan to Feb 2027
Forbidden Fruit
Mumbai's most secretive supper club. Twelve seats, ₹40 lakh a ticket, six hours to source one ingredient the rest of India can no longer get. Tara last tasted it when she was eight.
The finding
A dozen genuine Alphonso hit ₹2,500 this year. Sindhudurg lost 85 to 90% of its crop. (Government estimates, 2026 · TERI)
What it costs you
Real food becomes a luxury, and your children grow up never having tasted it.
Film 02 · Heat · Mar to Apr 2027
Killing Heat
Chennai. Murugan is 26 and needs his sister's wedding gift by tonight. His last shift is a Mylapore procession: forty men walking beside the groom with cooling rigs on their backs, tubes turned inward.
The finding
By 2030, 160 to 200 million people in Indian cities face a non-zero probability of lethal heatwaves.
(McKinsey Global Institute)
What it costs you
A second rent, every summer month, just to keep the flat liveable. Before inflation.
Film 03 · Water · May to Jun 2027
Cut Off
Bengaluru. Pradeep is a Water Recovery Agent, and a recovered debtor. His last call of the day is a family of six whose meter has been off since the funeral eleven days ago. Protocol says seal it.
The finding
All 4 of Chennai’s major reservoirs ran dry in 2019. Chennai declared Day Zero. (CMWSSB records, 2019)
What it costs you
Water becomes a tiered subscription. You'll own three bathrooms and the city will decide how many of them work.
FILM 04 · FLOODING · JUL TO AUG 2027
The Lost City of Colaba
Pheroze rows back into a drowned South Mumbai to find the gold his grandfather buried the week before the flood, and meets Lakshmi, who has lived on top of the Gateway of India for twenty-six years.
The finding
Colaba's asking prices fell 5.66% this year. Mumbai citywide up 7.7%. (Housing.com price trends, 2026)
What it costs you
No insurer covers it, so no bank lends against it, so the flat stops being sellable at any price.
Film 05 · Air · Nov to Dec 2027
Priced In
Delhi, 2055. Arjun is 26 and wants to open a furniture shop. Twenty-six years of Delhi air have priced his Lung Age at 41, and the bureau's algorithm has decided he won't live long enough to repay the loan.
The finding
Delhi's air takes 8.2 years off a resident's life. 1.72 million die of it nationally each year. (AQLI 2025 · Lancet Countdown 2025)
What it costs you
Your child grows up with lungs that never recover, and lenders price your Lung Age into what you can borrow.
Season One · Jan 2027 to Dec 2027
Every film goes out in its own season
Jan–Feb 27
Forbidden Fruit
February heat hits wheat flowering. Alphonso pricing runs to April
Mar–Apr 27
Killing Heat
The first fatal heatwave, alongside the annual tariff revision
May–Jun 27
Cut Off
Peak water crisis. Reservoirs lowest, tanker prices highest
Jul–Aug 27
Colaba
Monsoon. Mumbai floods on schedule while the film is in the feed
Sep–Oct 27
No film
Short-form runs on, and the first four action campaigns publish their results
Nov–Dec 27
Priced In
Delhi smog peaks. Schools shut, AQI leads every bulletin
The seasonal lock means reporters have topical material in every cycle. This makes earned media far easier, because we're contributing to a story the press is already committed to running.
Behind every film
Every film comes with eight weeks of programming around it
Wk 1
Hero film
Feel
Wk 2
Expert deep-dives
Understand
Wk 3
Street interviews
Understand
Wk 4
Satire
Imagine
Wk 5
Solution pioneers
Imagine
Wk 6
Action spotlight
Do
Wk 7
City convening
Do
Wk 8
Audience takeovers
Share
ACROSS THE SEASON · 200 PIECES OF CONTENT
Reporting
Point of view
Service
Feels Like
Short videos on what happened this week in the crisis the film is about. A reservoir level, a tariff order, an AQI reading, a court ruling.
A host or a creator takes that week’s news and says what they make of it.
We show you how to do one thing about it yourself this week, step by step.
A weekly piece built off the forecast. What the next few days will feel like, what they will cost you, and what to do about it.
The action engine · after every film
THREE WAYS FOR CITIZENS TO ACT, ORGANISED BY WHO YOU'RE HELPING
01
Help yourself
Self-interest is where almost everyone starts.
·A live air quality reading for your pincode·A cool roof retrofit you can arrange in a weekend·A water audit for your own society·A coastal exposure lookup for your building
02
Help those around you
Each produces a partner-verified counter.
·Adopt a classroom air purifier·Cool a worker with a ₹500 kit·Water infrastructure for schools·Mangrove restoration on Mumbai's coast
03
Help fix society
That is the whole ask, because the organised work that comes after only functions if the people are already there.
·Join the community·Give us your city·Turn up
Season Two · what the community makes possible
S2: A DECENTRALISED CITIZEN ACTION MOVEMENT
A short checklist per reality, translated, that one person can finish alone in an hour. We publish it. Other people run it where they live.
01
Go and look
At the thing near you. The locked gate, the dry tap, the unswept drain
02
Photograph it
Evidence has to be visual and binary, not a matter of interpretation
03
File it
Somewhere that creates pressure. RTI, ward committees, the regulator
04
Publish the result
Officials who fix things have to be able to win publicly, not only lose
Knowing whether it worked
HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS?
Most impact media programmes measure reach and stop there.
01 · The baseline
Reach and engagement
Views, watch-through, shares, cross-platform distribution, earned media. The baseline.
02 · Never blended
Action conversion
Community is people showing up: convenings held, cities live, people in rooms, and how many were still turning up in month 12.
Partner-verified counts: classrooms protected, harvests subscribed, workers kitted, litres harvested, hectares restored. Reported by named organisations against real delivery, so they can be audited. Self-reported action is counted separately and labelled.
03 · Most decks skip this
Narrative shift
Pre- and post-release studies through Vārta, tracking whether audiences change how they talk about climate, how relevant they find it, and how willing they are to act.
The one that makes this measurable as an intervention rather than as content.
Together: how far it reached, what people did, and whether the way India talks about climate moved.
Who's behind this
Data, narrative, audience and impact under one roof
Who makes it
Antkind Collective
Editorial control and IP
Produces the entire programme except the films. 50+ projects, 12 languages.
BANG BANG Mediacorp
Producing partner
Founded 2006 by Roopak Saluja. Mumbai and Los Angeles. A leading producer of premium commercials and branded content, with credits including Coldplay, Netflix, NBA, Emirates and IKEA. Makes the 5 hero films.
Who validates it
TERI
Scientific verification
Has agreed to verify the science and nominate advisors. No claim reaches an audience unread.
Vārta
Measurement backbone
Antkind's Narrative Intelligence Lab. Its read of the Indian climate conversation surfaced the gap this programme addresses. Contributed in kind.
Who lands it
The Climate Party
Community partner
8 cities, around 5,000 people, 1,100 vetted climate professionals over 3 years.
The ask · Season One, 12 months
Indicative
₹3.5 cr
/
$368K
5
Hero films, 3 to 5 minutes
5
Action campaigns with named partners
~35
Marquee pieces
1
Community, on our channels and in multiple cities
~160
Short-form pieces
1
Website, with the tools behind it
Future Tense · Season One
Let's talk.
Happy to walk through any film, the action matrix or the measurement design in more detail.
