Janato
Janato is the storytelling initiative of the Azim Premji Foundation’s Art and Culture programme.
Details
We tell stories through films, podcasts, art, and original music — stories rooted in the ideas of dignity, hope, harmony, joy, reconciliation, and beauty.
Through these different forms, we hope to create work that makes us curious, starts conversations, and brings us closer to lives and experiences beyond our own.
Our name comes from Vaishnava Janato, the 15th-century bhajan by poet-saint Narsinh Mehta.
At the heart of the song is a simple but powerful idea: to understand another person’s pain and act with empathy, without pride or the need for recognition.
That spirit of empathy, compassion, and human dignity sits at the heart of Janato and the stories we want to tell.
What we do
Janato works across four areas:
Janato began with Radio Azim Premji University.
What started as a radio station became a space for stories, conversations, and ideas. Students, faculty, practitioners, artists, and experts came together to create shows for a wider public audience.
For several years, we were audio-first.
We experimented with podcasts across history, culture, literature, constitutional values, sport, economics and everyday life. These included shows such as Bhakti Republic, The India Project, Unboxed, Well Caught, Almost Perfect, Likhe Jo Khat Mujhe, Economies of Khel and Samvidhaani Pitaara, among many others.
But the way people discovered stories was changing. And so were we.
We began moving from audio-first to video-first storytelling. Our stories travelled outside the studio and became more visual and on-location.
Noorakke Nooru Karnataka began taking us across Karnataka to tell stories about its people, institutions, and cultural history. The Health Worker brought us face-to-face with people working across India’s health system.
At the same time, we began making films, commissioning original music, and expanding our work with art.
What began as a radio station had become something larger.
Janato is the next chapter of that journey.
Join Janato
Janato is for viewers, listeners, filmmakers, artists, musicians, writers, photographers, collaborators, storytellers, and story lovers.
Watch a film. Listen to a story. Attend a screening. Discover a filmmaker. Experience art. Find new music. Or bring us a story of your own.
Radio Azim Premji University began with the act of listening. Janato takes that journey further — through stories we can listen to, watch and experience.
Everyday stories. Everywhere.