THE INDIAN PODCASTER

VASUNDHARA C EXPLORES THE WORLD OF INDIAN PODCASTS A MEDIUM THAT’S GROWING SLOWLY BUT STEADILY

When we think about aural entertainment the first thing that pops into our head is the radio. 104.8 FM was one of my favourites before I got a smartphone but our generation is so used to fast-forwarding through on-demand content that live shows are just not something we indulge in anymore. And while a lot of us still listen to old fashioned radio, some of us are listening to the nextgen version of it, the podcast.

‘Serial’ was the first podcast that introduced the medium to most people’s ears. It went so viral that people gave in and subscribed. Slowly an obsession began, the world over people were coming back to the radio show podcast and new, exciting genres were emerging. Starting a podcast became so common that there was now a meme about it. You’ve definitely seen it; it goes a group of two or more white men is called a podcast or something to that effect.

But what about Indian guys? Or girls? Were we starting podcasts? We are the third-largest podcast consumers in the market, after China and the US but listeners seemed to prefer international content with NPR showing some of the most downloads from India. While international podcasters were raking in millions we were nowhere close to putting out regular content. I desperately wanted to listen but podfading was starting to turn me off my quest and it looked like Make in India had not touched the podcast industry.