Mumbai: A ‘music night’ at a hospital in Bengaluru was supposed to bring “more bliss per minute” but has instead set off accusations of insensitivity. Organised by healthcare startup Superhealth, the event included hospital props and live music, as well as kombucha and “Superboosters” for guests.
The 22 August event, ‘HOSPITA/ITY vol.001’, was organised by Superhealth with Localhost HQ as an attempt to make hospitals feel less intimidating and more open to the community. The event was scheduled to run from 9.30 pm till 2 am.
Videos posted by growth marketer Gaurang Desai showed guests gathered inside the facility as artists performed. Desai wrote that people often fear hospitals while forgetting that, for many, a hospital room was also “the first room you ever entered”.
Desai also shared a poster of the house rules on X, which said the programme would be held only after OPD hours, with clinical areas separated, inpatient access restricted and emergency routes kept clear. Alcohol, smoking and vaping were not allowed.
ok so the party begins in some time
I like how super health’s house rule are so simple
lately I have been liking Satvik parties hehe
only in blr pic.twitter.com/zpkE1uvWtD
— gaurang.eth (@iamgaurangdesai) August 22, 2026
After the event set off a wave of angry comments, Superhealth founder and CEO Varun Dubey argued on X that the hospital’s OPDs had shut at 8 pm and the event began well after that, with inpatient areas kept completely off-limits.
“No music or event-related sound reached the patients. Not ‘almost zero.’ Zero,” Dubey wrote on Monday.
He said patients and attendants had also been invited and argued that hospitals did not have to remain “cold, frightening and morose”.
“Hospitals do not need to be scary places. We are going to keep pushing that belief,” he added.
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‘Techbro arrogance’ to ‘impressed’
A hospital was no place to have a party, according to several posts on X.
Pratyasha Rath, who said she had recently spent 17 days in hospital with her father, called the event “utter nonsense”, writing that it left her with “absolute disgust”.
I’m back home this week after 17 days of a hospital stay for my father. And the absolute disgust I feel,seeing this!!
None of these people should have anything to do with healthcare. Not sure what kind of user insights they gather, that lead to such utter nonsense! https://t.co/perrfh7EkT
— Pratyasha Rath (@pratyasharath) August 23, 2026
Software engineer Arpita Das, meanwhile, wrote that she had recently visited the hospital and heard a child cry after apparently losing his mother. She argued that this was why holding a party-like event in a hospital was “deeply insensitive”.
“If you’ve ever had someone you love admitted and spent days going back and forth to a hospital, you’d know exactly why,” she wrote.
Sudeep S D, head of product and growth at startup Flexprice, tagged organiser Kaashvi Saxena, Localhost’s Suhas Sumukh, Chandan Perla, Superhealth and its founder Varun Dubey, as well as Gaurang Desai, asking, “Why did this have to happen in a hospital?” and “What did you solve out of this?”
He too questioned the “empathy” of the organisers, adding: “This is not what ‘growth hacking’ means. Never did, never will.”
Some doctors registered their disapproval too. Dermatologist and hair specialist Dr Divya Sharma, who practises in Bengaluru, wrote on X that this showed “peak techbro arrogance”.
“Healthcare is heavily regulated for a reason – sterilization, ethics, privacy and patient trust matter. You can’t walk in with a tech playbook and treat health infrastructure like a marketing playbook! Pathetic,” she added.
The event also became fodder for jokes. Advertising professional Vishal Dayama wrote, “booking bob’s bar tonight to treat patients”, followed by jokes about a “Long Island IV drip” and “hip hip surgery”.
booking bob’s bar tonight to treat patients. long island iv drip. woohoo yay hip hip surgery.
— vishal dayama (@VishalDayama) August 23, 2026
Caleb Friesen shared a meme of a baby dancing and wrote, “Babies born in the maternity ward of Superhealth on Saturday.”
An impassioned defence also came from X user Ankit Sawant, who shared examples of hospitals in India and around the world that regularly organise music events for patients, staff and visitors.
“Some of these programs happen every week,” he wrote. “This is our biggest weakness that people don’t research & pile on random garbage under opinion based on their shallow & sorry life experiences… perhaps spend some more time to understand it.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)