The last two months of 2020 saw the entry of Amazon’s audio shows Audible Suno and Spotify’s podcast. Both media giants brought along several celebrities, including the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Karan Johar, Neena Gupta, Vir Das, Mouni Roy, and Nucleya to list a few, who are bringing audio shows across the genres of sports, drama, cinema, relationships, comedy and music. With growing interest in the audio segment and the entry of these stalwarts, it seems audio series could be the next big thing.
Mouni Roy
Actress Mouni Roy makes a debut in the audio space with Matrimonial Anonymous. The show highlights the trials and tribulations faced by modern men and women in the country in their attempt to find love in an arranged marriage set up. “Everything in the world has a round route, what goes will come back. And, India has a tradition of storytelling. The gadgets have taken us away from the patience required to read or to listen but it is coming back,” she says.
Matrimonial Anonymous streams on Audible Suno.
Mantra Mugdh
“If watching videos on your phone is giving you a pain in the neck, it’s time to switch to podcasts, it’ll keep your head held high,” declares Mantra Mugdh who started MnM Talkies, a podcast that offers audio web-series ‘that spare your eyes and activate the brain’. He finds podcasts to be the fastest-growing medium for the audience as well as advertisers in India and is happy that people are again realising the power of audio. “The world as a whole has once again realised what the power of audio can do, and with the way our lives are, we are always ‘on-the-go’ and podcasts can be your favourite companion,” he says.
MnM Talkies streams on Spotify.
Neena Gupta
Veteran actress Neena Gupta, who is known for breaking the mold, the latest example being Badhai Ho, also has an audio show, Ae Dil Hai Complicated. The audio series brings alive the secret stories of sex, love and relationships in India. “It was very interesting. Even though I am so-called “modern”, I was surprised by the kind of relationships that people were in. There was polyamory, which I didn’t know
existed, then there was the subject of threesomes and I really looked down upon it but these young girls and boys were talking to me honestly and truthfully and it was after talking to them that I realised that I can’t be judgemental about anyone or anything. It is their life and in the end, it is their need. I learnt a lot from this show and it wasn’t just sexual, we also spoke to a guy whose mother is a prostitute,” says Neena.
Ae Dil Hai Complicated streams on Audible Suno
Gaurav Kapur
Life has come full circle for Gaurav Kapur who started his career as an RJ before he gained recognition as a VJ. Talking about his podcast, 22 Yarns, Kapur says, “It offers stories, myths and folklore from cricket, which I discover with some of the best storytellers in the sport. Even for a die-hard cricket junkie like me, some of the stories that we’ve uncovered were bizarre and hilarious.” His series has 12 episodes, each taking up a different aspect of the sport, including history, as well as Indian and as international aspects. Each episode brings on board a guest who can talk about the same.
22 Yarns streams on Spotify Vir Das
Actor-comedian Vir Das’s Be Stupid with Vir Das is based on a graduation speech he once made. “The crux of the speech was that the stupid thing we do changes our lives more than the intelligent s**t we do.
We pretend like it’s the intelligent decisions which count but it’s actually the stupid decisions that are more valuable,” says Vir, adding that, “They are regular people with real stories. There is a guy who after his one-night stand cooked a really good breakfast next morning and the person he slept with said that he should be a cook and he went ahead and became a chef. There is a woman who left her entire set up in Delhi and moved to Mumbai with Rs 5,000 at the age of 52.”.
Be Stupid with Vir Das streams on Audible Suno