It seems every week has a storytelling session of some kind, but this weekend promises something huge and memorable. Tale Tellers Troupe India founder Santosh Mohan Veeranki had such an event on the backburners and now it’s finally coming to fruition.
“I felt with TTTI’s slogan ‘India and a world without stage fear’, we should have a global aspect to the some of the events we host,” he starts , “so we decided to put together an event where we genuinely brought the world together here in the city.”
The event, which TTTI’s first large scale event, will feature two stages; one being the main stage where main speakers will feature and another for Telangana-based acts such as puppetry shoes from Chekka Bommalata, a dance performance from Perini Thandavam, and storytelling-infused music from local band Tangy Sessions.
Here are some of the other guests to look out for, and get into the narrative spirit of things.
Asif Khan Dehlvi
For those seeking stories of spirituality and heritage, Delhi-based Asif Khan Dehlvi is known for his memorable heritage walks in Hindi and Urdu. He later started Delhi Karavan in 2013 which brings baithaks, karavans and daawats to the fore in the capital. Asif’s social media following makes him no stranger to the history lovers of Hyderabad, so we expect his round at the festival will be pretty popular.
For Santosh, meeting Asif was an inspirational experience, “It happened at Golconda two and a half years ago, back when TTTI wasn’t born yet. I enjoyed conversing with him and his speaking is just flawless.”
After this event, Asif will be hosting a storytelling walk this weekend as well.
Michelle D’Cruz
No stranger to Hyderabad, Singaporean Michelle is a poet known for her prize-winning spoken word career. A moving performance in a YouTube video for Bangkok Lyrical Lunacy titled ‘An Ode to Ourselves’ is worth checking out.
Musa Nxumalo
Having founded Knowledge Connections, Afrikologist Design Thinking Coach Musa is ready to regale audiences with his unique enterprising storytelling. His journey has taken him across Southern Africa and even led to him penning a book If The Shoe Fits.
Santosh says, “This will be his second visit with us. A friend of mine met him through an event in Thailand, and Musa expressed an interest in storytelling, and my friend got us in touch. I pitched him a workshop and other ideas and invited him over.”
A self-proclaimed cross-pollinator, Musa, who’s also affectionately known as ‘Shoes’, will also be heading up a workshop on April 13 titled, ‘Storytelling for Empathy and Collaboration in Business for Leadership.’
Zain Memon
Having co-founded Memesys Culture Lab, a cinema and new media studio at the intersection of science, philosophy and culture, with Anand Gandhi, Mumbai-based Zain is one of the country’s best known digital storytellers with projects such as Else VR under his belt.
Memon’s narrative strengths were further celebrated when he led the most successful crowdfunding campaign in India, for the documentary feature film An Insignificant Man which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016.
Sowmya Srinivasan
As one of founding members Bengaluru Storytelling Society, Sowmya often integrates concepts of theatre, music and movement into storytelling. She maintains a personal blog called ‘SoulSpace’ for her journey through storytelling and the likes, as well as another titled ‘Reinvention Blog’, which captures true life stories
of women who are switching their lives. Her audience is mainly children, who aren’t exactly an easy audience, and Santosh nods to this, “We know this event will attract a lot of families so Sowmya’s craft caters to that while being quite interesting for all ages.”
TTTI’s International Storytelling Festival will be taking place at Apollo Foundation Amphitheatre, Jubilee Hills, on April 14 at 6pm till midnight. Entry tickets to the entire festival are for ₹250, available on BookMyShow .
