Saarang (IIT Madras)

Saarang (meaning 'Chital' or Spotted Deer in Sanskrit, a common sight on IIT Madras campus) is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a 5-day long festival usually in the second week of the year. Founded in 1974, Saarang is the second oldest college festival in India.

Language

Multilingual (Tamil+English)

Genres

general lit

Organizer

Isha Sarvani, Mallika Sarabhai and troupe, Anil Srinivasan, Sikkil Gurucharan, Navin Iyer

Duration (days)

5

Next edition

TBA (typical early Jan; 2026 was 8–12 Jan)

Audience

"Spotlight", a concept in the previous editions of Saarang was a platform for famous and notable persons from various fields to address the audience and hold interactive sessions with them.

Age policy

Saarang collaborated with the MINDS foundation to conduct webinars for school children to encourage positive discussion normalizing the existence of mental illnesses and the need to provide professional help and support to those in need.

Language notes

Listed working language: Multilingual (Tamil+English)

Genre notes

Primary focus: general lit

Past guests

Kamal Hassan, Shriya Saran, Manu Joseph, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahesh Dattani, Leela Samson, Leander Paes, Kiran Bedi, Anita Rathnam, Ira Trivedi, R. Balakrishnan

Past editions

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026

Festival site