HYDERABAD: Riding the trend of healing podcasts, renowned Telugu film director Puri Jagannadh has started his own podcast network wherein the emphasis would be on the importance of humanity, social media and human relations.
Puri, who last directed iSmart Shankar starring Ram, Nabha Natesh and Nidhhi Agerwal, is currently observing self-isolation in Mumbai. While he bides time before things work out fr his next with Vijay Deverakonda, a pan-Indian martial arts drama tentatively titled Liger, Puri has engaged himself with this new audio medium. Podcasts, for the newbies, is recorded audio that one can listen through a website or an app. Unlike YouTube, users can play podcasts while they are running other apps.
So one can listen to a talk while doing some other work on another app. Sahiti RagaLeena Gunti, a new entrant in the arena, says that podcasting in Telugu is still in a nascent stage. The 20-year-old founder of a startup which is into paperless transaction of mutual funds and investments and moonlights as TV content creator says that it was during the Covid-19 break that she tried her hand at podcasts. Her channel called RagaPod – Telugu Ammai Podcast (on Anchor in Play Store) is her channel of experssion.
This CFP student who lives in Ameerpet says that she finds writing tedious and videos, which put her shy self in front of the camera, awkward. “The podcast where only my voice, thoughts and expressions are heard, felt like the ideal medium. She started last month and has put about 11 podcasts in the last two months and has touched upon subjects ranging f rom mental stress in actor Sushant Rajput’s context to minimalism in our life to meme pages. “There are many Telugu Youngsters like me who are presenting current issues and some entertaining nostalgia,” she adds Almost Aidu Nimashulu by former radio jockery Vidya Sivalenka, which she records on Instagram instead of a video, also has been getting around 10,000 clicks on an average voice video.
The fiveminute jhatpat format is usually like a casual chat, but with info and in a friendly way. ‘Insta Jock’ is how her followers call her. Again, this freewheeling talk seems to have takers and her most recent audio was about nostalgia. Daabakathalu, a Telugu podcast by Avinash Manchiraju, is his way of escaping from the chaos for a while.” “Being a 90s kid I always felt that the culture we were brought up in is special. So why not bring those amaziing memories back!” On why he chose to go engage the audience with a podcast and not a video, Avinash, 25, says, “A video is always followed by judgments on how a person looks and his body language. Voice does not have that barrier.” Avinash engages the audience with the monologues in his simple and fluent style which is quite pleasing.