Breaking Bad: Why Anger Rooms Are All The Rage In India Right Now

Old Bengaluru¡¯s Basavanagudi area is a haphazard grid of streets, most of them tree-lined and shaded. It is also a mish-mash of old-world bungalows with gabled roofs, monkey tops, and front yards, as well as shiny chrome-and-glass contemporary structures. Off Patalamma Street, Rage Room is an otherwise narrow, nondescript building except for its black and red fa?ade. It¡¯s exactly how it sounds.

After a mildly frustrating day at work a few months ago, techie Kshithija (name changed) found herself outside the building. ¡°I had come across the anger room in Hyderabad quite by accident, and when I searched, I found there was one in Bangalore too,¡± she told me. ¡°So I thought, why not give it a try? It was more out of curiosity than anything else.¡±

Kitted out in safety gear from head to toe¡ªa protective suit, safety boots, face shield, and helmet¡ªand suitably instructed, Kshithija stepped into the room, armed with a baseball bat. She was tentative at first. ¡°It¡¯s not like most of us go around breaking things!¡± she said. But whacking a bottle felt good. ¡°Once I got started, I just kept going. I am not sure whether I was venting my frustration or just having fun, but smashing things felt so good,¡± she said. ¡°Afterwards, I felt a bit better.¡±

Cafe Bhadaas

Rage rooms, also called anger rooms, smash rooms, or break rooms, are believed to have started in Japan nearly two decades ago and spread across the world as an antidote to anger and stress management. All sources point to 2008, when a chiropractor in Tokyo hit upon the idea of creating a room where people could smash things. The idea was slow to catch on, and it was around 2018 that the trend truly came into its own.

Around 2011, the Anger Room, a 1,000-square-foot Dallas warehouse, opened. It was based on an earlier idea set up in the founder¡¯s garage, where used, abandoned items became the targets. Donna Alexander, the founder, stated that she ¡°created the facility to combat violence by giving people a safe place to take out their aggressions¡±. Similar facilities have come up across the world, including a proposal by Italian artist Colline di tristezza to set up rage rooms and crying rooms in hospitals and schools to help the staff vent.

In India, the first rage room¡ªCaf¨¦ Bhadaas in Indore¡ªis supposed to have started in 2017, but it has only been since last year that there has been a sudden explosion. Hyderabad¡¯s The Rage Room (no relation to the Bengaluru one) launched operations in 2022, while ones in Bengaluru and Chennai began this year. Mumbai will have one soon.

Hitting It Off

Rage rooms are based on the theory of catharsis, which suggests that if anger and frustration are relieved through directed physical activity, they could be mitigated. But, while anecdotal evidence suggests that people might feel better immediately after a session, the jury is still out on whether blowing off steam like this is healthy and effective in the long run for anger and stress management. The biggest impediment is the lack of substantial data about rage rooms.

Cafe Bhadaas

In India, though, the reasons for setting up are a mix of fun and dealing with emotions. Founder Atul Malikram of Caf¨¦ Bhadaas, considered the country¡¯s first ¡°anger management caf¨¦ based on destruction therapy,¡± told me, ¡°The trigger was my own experience with anger issues. I wanted to create a safe space for people to vent their anger and stress in a controlled environment.¡±

Unsurprisingly, women are the biggest group of customers at rage rooms across the world¡ªin the US, almost 95%. With limited outlets to express their anger, they are also the demographic most in need of it. Bengaluru¡¯s Rage Room was born out of an intense desire to break stereotypes by its founder, Ananya Shetty. ¡°Girls and women are asked to behave, not to talk loudly, and to dress and be ladylike. This was born out of that frustration¡ªto smash stereotypes by setting up a space to smash things,¡± said ideation and content creator Neha Krishna, one of the founding members of Bengaluru¡¯s Rage Room.

According to Shetty, amidst the sea of expectations foisted on her, she yearned to explore, question, and challenge everything she had been told; the inspiration for Rage Room emerged when she felt the world pressing in. In those instances, when her frustration boiled over and demanded release through a scream, a shatter, or a way to make the intangible tangible, she felt the imposition of decorum by society. ¡°There was a restriction on my primal urge to express,¡± she said. The urge to rebel and seek an outlet for her emotions led to Rage Room, where Shetty hoped to establish ¡°a place where curiosity meets catharsis.¡±

The Rage Room Hyderabad

There are much simpler reasons for setting up rage rooms too. For Suraj Pusarla of Hyderabad¡¯s The Rage Room, a sprawling 500 sq ft space, the motivation goes back to childhood and the fun of breaking things. ¡°I brainstormed about it with some friends, and we went to open spaces and tested it out by breaking various things, just to see if it felt fun and exciting. I didn¡¯t even know about the concept of rage rooms. Only when the idea was concrete and I began researching, that I found the existence of such places, especially outside the country,¡± he said.

Anger Management

What people choose to smash is also revelatory. ¡°We offer bottles, keyboards, mouse, speakers and telephone but can source almost anything and customise,¡± Pusarla said. ¡°We have had customers ask for TVs, laptops, cameras etc. One customer asked for a guitar and I had to sacrifice my own.¡± Krishna said that the standard package includes beer bottles, balloons, ceramic mugs, and glass articles, while different packages offer various kinds of items.

And yet, despite the nomenclature, customers seem to be attracted as much by the notion of having fun as venting. ¡°It helps individuals release anger harmlessly, preventing long-term physical effects of uncontrolled anger,¡± said Malikram, but Krishna feels ¡°almost 80% of the visitors come because it is something fun, while 20% come to vent for various reasons like after a break up or a fight.¡±

That the concept is catching on, is evident by the numbers. Malikram told me that Caf¨¦ Bhadaas has catered to more than 800 people each year since inception, while Pusarla said more than 3,000 people have used his facility so far. Bengaluru¡¯s Rage Room is booked out on most days, with weekends being busier than weekdays.

Rage Room Bengaluru

It is true that there is no hard data on the efficacy of destruction therapy as a long-term plan, but users have indicated that latent or unrecognised anger or frustration hampers clear thinking. Pusarla said that customers have indicated that they feel lighter and have regained at least some headspace to think clearly. Sometimes, even having the space to be destructive without any serious consequences is enough.

Take, for instance, the responsiveness of rage rooms right now. Bengaluru¡¯s Rage Room is promoting a special World Cup fiesta for cricket fans to air out their frustration when their teams do disastrously. In a world that demands propriety, letting loose is all one needs.

Average time slots at most rage rooms range between 20 and 30 minutes. The fee varies, starting around ?400 per person, and can change depending on the number of people and the package. Safety gear, including protective suits, safety boots, face shields, goggles, and helmets, is provided and covers almost the entire body. Users are usually required to sign waiver forms. Articles for destruction are usually sourced from scrap and later recycled.