A group of friends with common interests has made an attempt to attract the young generation to Kannada literature, by narration of tales.
It has selected six interesting stories, which will be compiled into an audio book.
Mukund Setlur and his team paid out of their own pockets and devoted time to bring out six CDs containing audio narration of the short stories by renowned Kannada writers — Poornachandra Tejaswi, Jayanth Kaikini, Ravi Belagere, Na D’Souza, Vasudhendra and Vikram Hatwar.
Celebrities in the field of theatre, cinema and music have supported this unique initiative. The stories for the audio book are narrated by acclaimed director T S Nagabharana, actors Prakash Rai, Kishor, Suchendra Prasad, Rakshith Shetty and singer M D Pallavi.
Nagabharana, along with B Suresh and singer M D Pallavi, launched the website, ‘Keli Katheya’, and its social media platforms containing information about the audio book here last week.
Speaking on the occasion, Mukund Setlur said that the professionals had devoted their free time without accepting any remuneration.
Nobody has been paid for this work. The full amount from the sale of these CDs will be spent on the education of children in the border areas without expecting any commercial returns, he added.
Nagabharana said, “We have a great oral tradition in Karnataka. But today’s generation is missing out on this opportunity. So we worked on this audio book, hoping to revive our storytelling tradition.”
Suresh said that the audio book contains the stories which are close to the hearts of the present generation.
The initiative by the volunteers is very much needed for the changing cultural landscape, he added.
For details, visit www.kelikatheya.com.