In the Media

India's First e-Novelist is Telugu Man - The New Indian Express

A Telugu novelist has entered the Net Age! GV Amareswara Rao, a popular writer achieved the distinction of becoming India's first e-novelist with www.hamarashehar.com a multilingual portal launching his novel, "Beautiful Enemy" on September 25.

What really distinguishes him from other writers is that he is the only Indian writer of an interactive novel, a feat mastered by Stephen King, a horror novelist from US.

"Beautiful Enemy" is simultaneously being translated into Telugu — "Andamaina Satruvu" and Hindi — "Khoob Surat Dushman".

Illustrator-turned-artist-turned-writer, Rao has about 45 novels and over 20 film scripts to his credit and is bracketed into the hallowed category of commercial writer with considerable following among readers and receptivity among publishers.

The e-novel's interactivity is interesting. You can change the name of all main characters and of course, the course of story too. For instance, you can become the hero and your beloved on the heroine. The villain? Your choice. The 20 part (or episode?) novel, which will be updated every week, would split into two streams after the fifth week. The story simultaneously progresses in two different directions — you can pick up your choice. The daily grading by readers (or browsers) decide which is more popular.

It story line is simple. Ravindra is chased by a bad woman, Pankajam, for his property. Under mysterious circumstances, he is sentenced to death after being falsely implicated in a murder case. Finally, Radha, heroine, enters the scene to add drama to the story. A lot of thrill is assured.

UNIQUE ASPECTS: Its other unique aspects are: You can choose the font size of the letters, colours of illustrations and bookmark the page so that you can start from where you left it last time. Webcasted by Ardent Citylink Services, the novel can be downloaded free of cost.

Little did Rao know when Bodepudi Krishna Prasad, a US based NRI, asked him to author the e-novel, he would be emulating Stephen King.

Of course, the similarity ends at that. If king's novel cost one US dollar for downloading each episode, Rao's episodes are free of cost. Again, King novels are only in English. This portal offers the novel in three languages.

Forty-two-years old Amareswara Rao is working for the last nine years as an artist in Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University in Hyderabad. Earlier, he worked for a host of magazines, newspapers and publications as an illustrator and photographer. He penned his first detective novel, "Shavam Chesina Hatya" (The murder committed by a dead body) in 1977.

Then, followed "Moodo Manishi" (Third person). "I got Rs. 50 as remuneration for each of them," Rao recalls.

"Jwaala Simhasanam," a novel based on the trials and tribulations of Tamil separatists in 1980s, "Kaliyuga Savitri" and "Aatmahuti" are some his best sellers. "Novels based on themes of comedy, crime, fantasy and adventure," he explains.

What propelled him to author this e-novel? "Well, the reading habits of people are fast changing. Unless you cope with the technological boom that swept us across, novel, short story or any other fiction cannot survive," Rao feels.

OVERWHELMING RESPONSE: The response to the novel in the first three days is overwhelming. "I am happy that Telugu people from US and other European countries are reading it," he said. "This shows there is scope for literature even in the Net age".

He has plans to author one more e-novel soon.

Like in all other Indian languages, Telugu fiction too is divided into two categories: classic or serious or pulp or commercial. Rao, dubbed as a pulp writer, is not at all dismayed at it. "People accept us. It is critics who look down upon us".

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