BENGALURU: Run-of-the-mill reality shows, short films, webseries, viral videos and music albums are being dumped on YouTube these days. Just when everybody thought that creativity has hit rock bottom, a team of youngsters have come up with a first-of-its-kind audio podcast in Kannada. Podcasts are a western fad in west that are slowly crawling into the Indian market.
Titled Karma Is A Witch, the podcast is the brainchild of Chetan Narayanaswamy, proprieter of Prathidwhani. Speaking to City Express, Chetan says, “Short films and webseries have nothing new to offer these days. Apart from a few played on the radio, there are no podcasts exclusively in Kannada. Our team of eight wanted to make a difference in entertainment and give something unique to audiences. That’s how we zeroed-in on a podcast.”
The seven-episode series is a mystery thriller. “Listeners’ attention span is very short. So we have tried to make it as crisp as possible. Since it is an audio podcast, we can be expressive only through our voices and music. Listeners shouldn’t be bored at any point, and keeping all these in mind, we have worked on the script and music. There is suspense, murder, horror, mystery and more. Music has blended well with the script and the teaser has been getting good response,” he adds.
Made in in-house studio
There are eight main characters in the podcast and all the episodes have been recorded at Chetan’s in-house studio. Chetan has worked as the lyricist, script and dialogue writer for the podcast. Co-writer Suraj says, “All of us are freshers and had no clue how it would work.Voice modulations and bringing out the best was the only thing we had on our minds.” Suraj has lent his voice for the detective’s role for the series. Anil, who has lent his voice for the theme music, says, “It was indeed challenging to bring in that attention and feel through music, which I believe has been done very effectively. The theme song will be out soon.”
Divyashree, who works at a radio station, was the only team member with some experience in the field. She says, “We can’t have many characters, and being able to narrate a mystery thriller with minimum characters was very interesting. Ultimately, it was all about teamwork.” “We haven’t spent any money on this, and we aren’t expecting any revenue from this either,” Chetan signs off.
As of now, four episodes have been recorded, and the rest will be done by this month end. The podcast will be out on February 9. Users can subscribe, listen or download at podcast.prathidhwani.com.