By Sudhanshu Rai – Storyteller, actor and filmmaker.
Storytelling has its roots in the prehistoric era, when men drew scenes onto cave walls to express their emotions. Humans began passing their knowledge, fantasies, and mythologies through oral stories as language evolved, intermingled with aspects of fiction and realism. Storytelling has changed as a result of human evolution. Simple stories were now performed as plays and puppet shows that were ingrained in the region’s culture and history. Later, they invented cinema as a platform for telling stories. Nonetheless, despite the availability of so many additional entertainment sources, traditional storytelling has endured through these times.
Every year, World Storytelling Day is celebrated on 20th March where storytellers collect at local and international level to preserve their art, to pass it on to the next generation, thereby preserving the history, culture and language of the place. Aided by the digital media, these storytellers can now reach different parts of the world with the help of recorded sessions or those transmitted live. The way these stories are being told is also constantly evolving, thanks to the digital revolution. A story is now aided by sound effects, light effects to aid the story and set the mood.
Such live storytelling performances in front of an audience have evolved into something akin to a theatrical performance. The art of storytelling is currently being expanded to include not just live music, sound and light effects, but also actors to assist the narration. It is not surprising to discover that sound designers and engineers have elevated themselves to crucial storytelling roles by setting the right mood and ambience. Through the pure power of the words used by storytellers, the captivated audience lives through the story as if it were happening right in front of them.
These modern storytellers narrate the tales not just in Hindi but also in regional tongues like Bengali, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, and English. With the help of AI, one can now get subtitled videos in a language of the choice of the audience. In order to make narrative appealing to the modern listener who has access to a wide variety of digital entertainment options, storytellers have been experimenting with newer forms. Horror as a genre has grown in popularity while experimenting with narratives, and criminal thrillers, eerie tales, and time travel tales have taken over as the go-to options. Consequently, we are developing more tales in this genre.
The storytellers now feel confident enough to try out different genres thanks to the listeners’ consistent feedback both during and after the programme. We also have stories that satisfy the listeners’ nostalgic requirements, in addition to simple tales, classic tales, and tales steeped in history. On the one hand, there are storytellers who delve deeply into the human psyche and create characters who aren’t only black and white but also grey. On the other hand, there are stories that appeal to the need for an adrenaline rush by writing thrillers with a lot of shock and surprise.
Storytelling sessions are frequently videotaped and made accessible on different video streaming apps in order to meet the needs of the tech-savvy generation. This has made it possible for the storyteller to reach a worldwide audience; listeners can now be located anywhere in the world. Social media too has been crucial in helping storytellers gain a bigger audience. Many times, fans of a specific storyteller who have fallen in love with their stories will go to any lengths to attend a live storytelling session.
Aided by digital tools, the storytelling sessions are recorded and shared across various medium, all thanks to technology and digital revolution. Thus, storytelling is gaining recognition and adoration as more and more listeners are discovering the joy and mental health benefits. Whoever thought storytelling might become redundant would be surprised to see its popularity especially on digital mediums like Youtube, Storytel and various podcasts. And thus, the saga of storytelling shall continue till eternity.
