In the Media

Move over Stephen King, Telugu author allows browser to choose storyline - The New Indian Express

India's first e-novel is Beautiful Enemy

The New Indian Express, Sept 29, Bangalore Edition: It had to happen. Once Stephen King started the trend by releasing his hugely popular novella "Riding the Bullet" on the Net, it was only a matter of time before we Indians got onto the bandwagon. Now, Telugu novelist G V Amareswara Rao has entered the Net Age. He has the distinction of being India's first e-novelist with www.hamarashehar.com, a multilingual portal, launching "Beautiful Enemy" on September 25.

Little did Rao know when Bodepudi Krishna Prasad, a US-based NRI, asked him to author the e-novel, that he would be making waves a la King. The fact that 400,000 orders were received for Riding the Bullet in the first 24 hours of its release should have prepared Rao for the overwhelming response Beautiful Enemy has received in three days.

But where King's novella cost one US dollar for downloading each episode, Rao's is free. Again, King's was only in English. This portal offers the novel in three languages.

"I'm happy that Telugu people from the US and other European countries are reading it," Rao says. "This shows there is scope for literature even in the Net Age."

"Beautiful Enemy" is simultaneously being translated into Telugu, "Andamaina Satruvu", and Hinid, "Khoob Surat Dushma". Illustrator-turned-artist-turned-writer, Rao has about 45 novels and over 20 film scripts to his credit. He is in the hallowed category of commercial writer with a considerable following among readers and receptivity among publishers.

Forty-two-year-old Rao has been 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 wrote 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 says. "Jwaala Simhasanam," a novel based on the trials and tribulations of Tamil separatists in 1980's, "Kaliyuga Savitri" and "Aatmahuti" were best sellers. "They are novels based on themes of comedy, crime, fantasy and adventure," Rao says.

Beautiful Enemy's interactivity, meanwhile, should be quite a crowd-puller. You can change the name of all the main characters and, of course, the course of the story. For instance, you can become the hero and your beloved can be the heroine. The villain? You get to make that choice, too.

The 20-part (or is it episode?) novel which will be updated every week will split into two streams after the fifth week. The story simultaneously progresses in two different directions — you can pick the one you want to follow.

The daily grading by readers (or browsers) decides which is more popular.

The storyline is simple. Ravindra is chased by Pankajam for his property.

Under mysterious circumstances, he is sentenced to death after being falsely implicated in a murder case.

Finally, Radha, the heroine, enters the scene to add drama to the story. A lot of thrills are sure to follow.

The 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 off.

It's been webcasted by Ardent Citylink Servics.

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 dismayed by it.

"People accept us. It is the critics who look down upon us," he says.

"The reading habits of people are fast changing in the present days," he added.

Unless you cope with the technological boom that has swept across us, novel, short story, poetry, or any other fiction or creative writing cannot survive against the odds," Rao adds.

Rao has plans to author one more e-novel very soon.

« Back to In the Media