Chandrakanta and Vikram Beetal in a new Avatar
Dec 14, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 14 (ANI/Media Dekho): During the lockdown millions of people have been watching TV shows from the 1980s and 90s, everybody wanted to be part of the Nostalgia, which is an extremely important memory function mostly linked to happiness.
While the world was glued to their TV sets, team at "Audible India" an "Amazon company" and "White Script", a Mumbai based Film & Television production house, were busy chalking plans to re-introduce some of the popular shows from golden Doordarshan eras such as Chandrakanta, Vikram Beetal, and Tenali Raman in a new avatar "Audiobooks".
Talking about how the journey began, "InderKochar", Creative Head and Producer at "White Script" say, "During the lockdown we saw, old epic TV shows such as Ramayan, Mahabharata and Om NamahShivay, clocking viewership up to 100 million. It clearly showed the emotional connect audiences have with shows from Doordarshan Era. More than the viewership records, it was the stories which mattered.
Some of these stories from our mythology and our rich literary history have a deep and profound connection with our belief system, we found our views resonate with the brilliant team at "Audible India" and we will always be grateful to them for believing in "White Script" to recreate these shows for their platform," he adds.
While talking about the content, he says, "Tenali Raman, Chandrakanta and Vikram Beetal need no introduction to an average Indian, these stories have been created in the past for various visual platforms, but when it came to Audio platform we decided to design the production balancing entertainment with knowledge.....With so many engaging entertainment options available in today's time, the challenge was how do we create a property that will stay true to the story written hundreds of years ago, which also gives knowledge about virtues of life, moral values, yet keeping it engaging, so a 5-year-old or a 50-year-old can enjoy it in the year 2020.
White Script conducted an internal focus group study and held multiple readout sessions with voice actors to tell the story exclusively through dialogue, to see the correctness of the delivery of story with emotions just like the movies.
"White Script" also engaged services of seasoned Music Composer "AbhijeetHegdepatil", who then added dramatic music, Foley sound, creating a soundscape which, added to the listener's imagination creating vivid images in their minds, making them emotionally aroused and interested in the story.
"We essentially took a cue from the age-old idea of bedtime stories, which is the first form of audio stories we are exposed to - daadaa daadii kii khaaniyaaN (Grandma Stories), and added some more to it, he tells.
Spilling the beans on the shows, he further says, "Chandrakanta - Published in 1888 it was the first modern Hindi novel. It gained a cult following and contributed to the popularity of the Hindi language. This book was way ahead of its time, which talks about mechanical beings, espionage and Love. People were so enthralled when it was first published that they started to learn Hindi to enjoy this book, as the popular medium of publication at that point of time was Urdu.
Our writer took care of narrative and stayed true to the original Author version of the book and did not take any undue liberties in the adapted screenplay, which at the time you find it with many books adapted for the celluloid and with VikramBeetal and Tenali Raman, we have tried to steer the minds of the young to the art of intelligent living with principals of Dharma (morally proper conduct) attached to the Indian society from thousands of years."
We hope with these products we can start to create interest in rich Indian literature in today's generation in while using the tools of the modern world and hope to create more such adaptations. It is said books are our best friend but Audiobooks are the bestie you never had," he concludes.
This story is provided by Media Dekho. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Media Dekho)
