Like most of us, entrepreneur and voice-over artiste Naveen Haldorai always wondered what it would be like to live through the periods of history that his school teacher taught him. While the quest ended there for many, the former RJ decided to revisit his textbooks to create a dramatic retelling of the past through a podcast. “History has always had a committed audience across all forms of media, be it print or broadcast,” begins Naveen.
Tapping into this interest, the 28-year-old launched his fortnightly podcast, the Curry Channel Podcast in August, starting with the arrival of Vasco Da Gama on Indian shores. “Maritime exploration changed the course of Indian history and I wanted this to be the starting point of my podcasts,” he explains.
Sound rolling and action
This isn’t academic history, though. The podcast’s unique blend of drama, background music and masterful narration describe each episode as if it were a scene straight out of a movie. In its debut chapter, the listener, along with Vasco Da Gama, gets to explore the sights and sounds of erstwhile India too. Their only guide — the booming, excited voice of Naveen. “We have all been taught these lessons when we were in school. Narration and storytelling techniques play a major role in how history is received. Every episode is thought of like a scene production,” explains Naveen, who has released four episodes so far.
Working with a simple setup that includes a microphone, laptop and a soundproof room (that doubles up as his bedroom), the Coimbatore-based artiste who has lent his voice to shows like Big Boss reveals that he spends an average of three and a half hours to record an episode. “An entire episode package, post-production and all would take at least three to four days to complete.”
In other words
Even as the concept of podcasts is slowly catching on in India, with local content finding many listeners, Naveen’s channel gains credence as it is currently one of the two indie Tamil podcasts in the country. “There is a lot of local content in English, but in the vernacular, it is still a rarity.” Though completely in Tamil, with the occasional English word slipping in, simple sentence structures through the podcast make for easy listening. With the newest show on Karikala Chola in the works, Naveen indicates that he is most excited about an episode on Jallianwala Bagh. “There is so much research and reading that needs to be done,” he says.
Pooling in multiple talent —for other voices and characters — this chapter is a ‘dream project’. Apart from the fortnightly history-focused script, Curry Podcast also has special conversations, such as the Spooky Nights episode that was launched for Halloween.
New episode out today. Available on Google Podcast and Apple iTunes.