HYDERABAD: While the debate about the younger generation losing touch with the Telugu language continues to snowball, a Hyderabad start-up, ‘Kahaniya’, is connecting the young and old generation with the World Telugu Conference (WTC) as the stage. Kahaniya, which is a Nasscom start-up, used to function out of T-hub until a while back by providing a platform for writers to find readers for their work.
The start-up is an online platform which allows novelists, storytellers and poets to publish their works in their own language and earn money.
Pallav Bajjuri, founder of ‘Kahaniya’ and a graduate from Boston University, said, “We are consolidating our position to meet the requirements of the new generation. Every person who is interested in Telugu will be at the event. Getting a stage presence at this event is a wonderful prospect for our start-up.” The 28 year-old CEO will speak at the conference during a session on technology and language. The two-hour session will focus on how Telugu is evolving in the digital age, with talks from people who have been working on Telugu and digitisation.
The start-up has so far connected 980 Telugu authors through 12,400 stories. Some of the stories of the new generation authors are made into films.
Furthermore, Kaha-niya will set up stalls across all the venues of the conference and deploy volunteers. Kahaniya has been working with both the Telugu governments in digitizing anthologies. Some of the works of popular authors like Dr.C Narayana Reddy, Dr. N.Gopi, Dasari Venakata Ramana, Kaloji, Adavi Baapiraju, Yandamoori Veeren-dranath, Malladi Venkata Ramana, Balabadrapatruni Ram-ani, Suddala Ashok Teja and Ammangi Venu-gopal have been digitized and are available online.
Mr Bajjuri said, “Localisation is vital for us. While we have 1300 authors in total, 980 of them are Telugu authors. Of the 15,000 stories on Kahaniya, 12,400 stories are in Telugu.”
