The Hindu Business Line : Classic gambit

IT'S a category that's popular in the West but is barely known in India. Karadi Tales, which produces audiobooks for children, has plans to make it bigger.

Last April, the Chennai-based firm released President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's autobiography Wings of Fire as an abridged audiobook which went on to sell one lakh copies. This month-end, the firm will release an audiobook of Gandhiji's The Story of My Experiments With Truth at Sabarmati Ashram. In the pipeline are Kalidasa's Abhijnana Sakuntalam and a series on seers and saints, including Kabir, Thyagaraja and Tukaram. The audiobooks comprise a CD and a book.

The entry into audiobooks for adults was "accidental, we always thought it would be a one-off." The impetus for the audiobook Wings of Fire came from none less than President Kalam himself, who, says C.P. Vishwanath, Director, Karadi Tales Co, gifts Karadi's audiobooks to children. This "silent bestseller (unlike other books which were much hyped but sold much less)" sold four lakh copies. Publisher Universities Press approached Karadi with the President's proposal and soon film-maker and actor Girish Karnad and singers Shankar Mahadevan and Bombay Jayashree were roped into the project, with the team 3 Brothers & a Violin providing the music. Shlokas, Amir Khusrau, Thirukkural, Guru Granth Sahib all find a place in the audiobook.

The project posed a few challenges: How does one retain the essence in an abridged version? How can audio be used to the maximum effect? What role would music, which is so woven into Karadi's projects, play? And finally, the biggest challenge of all: Building an audience for a habit that does not exist.

The objective is to reveal "just a fifth of the main book but keep it complete;" also to "light the spark" so that the listener-reader can go out and find out more about the subject. The audiobooks will be published by Charkha Audiobooks, an imprint of Karadi.

Vishwanath says, "The response to Wings of Fire greatly exceeded our expectations. It demonstrated a latent interest in the market for such products. Charkha evolved out of this. Now all audiobooks for adults (including Wings of Fire and its Hindi and Tamil versions, Parwaaz and Agni Chiragugal), fall under the Charkha identity."

Karadi's audiobooks are very different from the Western ones, says Vishwanath. Abroad, "it is only a dry or slightly dramatised reading. Charkha has chosen to redefine audiobooks by using it not only as a convenient medium but to exploit `sound' as an opportunity to elevate the experience. This is done through a specifically composed background score and music."

In fact, there is a British edition of the My Experiments with Truth audiobook but Karadi's version is a starrer: film director Shekhar Kapur reads for Gandhiji and Nandita Das narrates; the illustrations in the book are by Thota Tharani and the music that punctuates the reading is a selection of devotional songs dear to the Mahatma. Karadi has made an effort to place them at stages in the autobiography where the wisdom in those songs was borne out by the experiences in his life. My Experiments With Truth is priced Rs 250 and Wings of Fire is priced Rs 200.

Who is the audience for his audiobooks? "People who want knowledge but don't fancy reading, those who read magazines and newspapers but not books; even those who are attracted by the narrators and singers featured in the book ... anybody, actually," says Vishwanath.

The advantages of an audiobook are many: A voice can pique interest in the text, make a character more real; it's an easy way to read tough/ponderous works; nuances in dialogue are better appreciated and the convenience factor apart, the format is also a great aid for those who want to acquire language and reading skills, child or adult.

Karadi Tales, which also produces audiobooks to aid schoolchildren acquire language skills in its Karadi Path initiative, calls Charkha a promising line. Next is Kalidasa's Abhijnana Sakuntalam. Scripted by writer Lakshmi Lal and narrated by actor Shobhana, "it's a piece of art, where the art is as big as the music," says Vishwanath, adding that it will contain a prose narrative with the Sanskrit verses set to music. The series on saints, for which research is under way, is in a "contemporary Harikatha" style where the protagonist's story is interspersed with his songs. Each audiobook takes about a year to produce.

Will they be music to the ears? Watch this space.

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