Voices Pushpesh Pant Utkarsh Amitabh S Vaidhyasubramaniam Anu Aggarwal Debashis Chatterjee Swami Sukhabodhananda THE new sunday express MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment February 23 2025 SUNDAY PAGES 12 Viewership count The Indian podcast industry is projected to cross 200 million listeners this year. India is the world’s third-largest podcast market after China and the US, having reached 105 million podcast listeners last year 73,000 (YouTube) Ear Pods By Nayare Ali W e live in an unusual age. An age of personal engagement, a plethora of conversations about interests ranging from arcane to the mundane. An age where jaded celebrities, histrionic historians, cheery chefs and similar worthies doling out advice and information. The podcast age is the new Information Age. Last month at 10.30 pm on a cold wintry night in Bengaluru, 2,100 km from Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was brought home by Zeroda founder Nikhil Kamath. It was Modi’s first podcast on People by WTF. The podcast is the new leveller: anyone can be a guest on anyone’s airwaves, so long they have something interesting to say The Modi-Kamath podcast was a revealing . session with an authenticity perhaps only a podcast can bring. “The loneliest part of reaching the pinnacle of success is the isolation it brings with it,” says Utkarsh Gupta, who watched the podcast video. In her raw and uplifting podcast, My Indian Life, Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin speaks to young people across India—from campaigners to drag kings, across all corners of the country A plethora of options A cursory glance at podcast sections on YouTube or Spotify will throw up a surfeit of choices depending on preferences. The USP is revelations on the unknown: in science, history, biographies and business. The knowledge of such brilliant podcasters stem from their vast scholarship, making them experts in the field. Piali Dasgupta Surendran, Fractional CMO, Columbia Pacific Communities, watches Kamath’s podcast regularly “He . has a unique approach to moderating a conversation. In an attention economy, getting people to watch a two-hour conversation is not easy I like the fact . that he keeps it quite casual most of the time and goes deep in the subject,” she says. The advantage of podcasts, unlike TV is they are not time bound. Watch or listen according to your whim. Author William Dalrymple revels in his role as co-host with historian and broadcaster Anita Anand of The Empire; a podcast that has taken India by storm. The two have a bantering style which conveys significant but lesser known facts about the Raj on the unsuspecting listener: There are gems like an instance where Dalrymple reads out a letter by Ghalib to a grieving friend, or Anand recounting stories of Partition from her family Then there is an . episode that delves into India-loving German Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel—Maharaja of Mysore’s trusted landscape architect—who ended up enduring hardship and isolation in British-run camps during the first and second world wars. In fact, after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, he was entrusted with landscaping the Raj Ghat memorial in Delhi. There is another episode on Aurangzeb that discusses how despite his powerful autocracy, the reign heralded the beginning of the end for Chapter 2 What made you start the podcast? I wanted to have a fresh start and Chapter 2 was the place to be. I had healed a lot by having many conversations with people and sharing my emotions with them. So I decided to bring it on screen and have interesting people share their experiences through open and honest conversations. What is the USP of the show? It is the vulnerability that every guest brings and the honesty with which they come. So many celebrities bare their souls. I feel I can learn from them. My perspective shifts. I want the audience to feel the same way. Any stand out moments? Aamir Khan coming on my second episode really changed things for us. The way he shared his life and the vulnerability he exposed, set the tone. Also, Sushmita Sen graciously agreeing to be the first guest on my podcast, was a big thing. I didn’t have any sponsors, I was producing it myself and I simply called her up. Viewership count 8,28,000 (YouTube) emotionally draining. Instead of questioning someone’s identity, we need to respect the process and focus on the sport,” she reveals on the show. Viewership count 3,82,000 (YouTube) the Mughals; and what might have been, had he not won the war of succession? The episodes are also about the rise and fall of old global empires. Dalrymple moans about juggling the podcast with the Jaipur Lit Festival of which he is a director. Anand’s public school accent takes on a teasing tone as she reminds him of his earlier comment of standing “on a feather which is balanced on a snowflake while riding a surfboard in a force nine gale”. Their rapport sets the tone for the podcast’s first edition for 2025. What began in 2022 has entered its third year. Their conversation analyses Shah Jahan’s life, his dislike for alcohol and devotion to his queen, Mumtaz. Often, the in-sync duo invites eminent historians to debate with them on subjects of relevance. While on the topic of Jehangir in a subsequent podcast, they were joined by Susan Stronge, curator of the V&A exhibition; The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence discusses the visual culture of the court. Dalrymple reveals, “There is a certain discovery of history from Rhea Chakraborty No Sugar Coat with Pooja Dhingra is a no holds barred conversation that brings to light the stories behind restaurant walls and kitchen doors different angles. People are surprised that history can be interesting. It can be full of character and incident and narrative and a process of discovery for the people in this country, which is what makes this podcast stand out.” Most podcasters invite experts for credibility’s sake. Bengaluru podcaster Mohua Chinappa of The Mohua Show invites people from relevant fields to discuss contemporary situations. In her latest podcast, she had HR expert and sportsperson Yasmeen Sheikh to discuss the challenges faced by transgender athletes in sports. “While there is no unified system, it is mentally and Topics for every season and reason Podcasts are not just in English. Take your pick from an assortment of options in Hindi, or a vernacular language. For instance, Indians are reputed to have an emotional connect with food. Which is why food podcasts are the rage. Puja Darshan’s show The Tastes of India is a bilingual food podcast that has a devoted following among both seasoned and fledgling cooks. Disenchanted by the corporate treadmill, and disappointed by her organisation that refused to extend her maternity leave, Darshan started a podcast with the support of her husband. Her approach is simple and so are the recipes. The podcast has two segments. In the Culture section, she gently draws in her listeners by beginning with a fable. Listening to her on the Food section, you are reminded of your friendly neighbour teaching you to make makke ki roti with sarson ka saag. Darshan makes the process so easy to follow that you feel like a Masterchef by the end of the prep. Since it is an audio podcast, you can easily take the phone into the kitchen and cook as the instructions take you along. There is literally a podcast for every mood. On some days, you may wake up feeling lost or seeking answers; a popular podcast that addresses spiritual and religious issues using simple philosophy is Sri Jaggi Vasudev’s Sadhguru which has 1.22 crore subscribers. In a recent podcast he talks about unreliability in romance, “if you love somebody it’s a fickle happening, because no human being will be there 100 per cent. Love is not a relationship but a sweetness of emotion.” Though such advice is questionable in its veracity, Vasudev’s podcasts are well received for their native wisdom coupled with an understanding of the human psyche. Need a perk-me-up? Listen to Teen Taal. Manned by three friends, Kamlesh Kishore Singh, Kuldeep Mishra and Asif Khan, the podcast is about casually chatting about their day-to-day lives. It touches on topics that are the fulcrum of daily existence. There are jibes at politics, Indian society, or just at anything that catches their fancy . In the New Year special, Mishra grouches about not being able to sleep till midnight, since people were bursting crackers in his neighbourhood; a scenario people who stay indoors, can easily relate to. Being in video format, the podcast becomes more entertaining since you can see their expressions and feel the camaraderie. OTT channels seem to have gone on overdrive, often churning out similar and lacklustre content that feel like jaded Bollywood copybook. “People are bored of the slimness and superficiality of a lot of stuff coming on telly, be it political debate which is a shouting match, or science or tech or history,” adds Dalrymple. This is a reason for humour-based podcasts becoming the rage. Take Bits and Pieces. This transcontinental cricket podcast has Indian cricket fans from across the world joining hosts Vipul, Nitin Sunder and Prashant DP who engage in a humorous conversation with puns galore. It fosters a strong sense of community that extends to the real world, bringing together people bound by a common passion for the sport and making them feel wanted and valued. Then there is The Dosa Guys hosted by comedians Turn to page 2