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Rajesh M Iyer is a media
professional for over two decades and is an acclaimed storyteller and writer.
He is beyond any introduction on his eminent and yet passionate profession
i.e., “writing”. He had published 5
novels till now. Evading the Shadows, which has been the #AmazonBestseller
Hari and Friends- The Holy Adventure, Spinner of the Twisted Tale, Karmic Souls
and The Mind Whisperer; along with The Valiant Warriors and Nanha Natkhat for
children. He has been associated with many media houses like Megna Publications
(Editorial Head – Books), Macmillian India (Creative Head, Corporate Division) and
Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd (Vice President – Creative). Rajesh was also the editor of magazines like ‘Great Looks’
(fashion magazine) and ‘Raga to Rock’ (music magazine), apart from being a
regular columnist in many publications. Iyer conducts storytelling sessions for
a few educational institutions and corporates, prominent among them being Amar
Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd., MATS University (Raipur), Pearl Academy, Krimiga
Publications, Stream Edutech, WOW Express, among others.
The Ballad of the Wandering Minstrel
Iyer emphasised on “The Ballad of
the Wandering Minstrel” saying that every storyteller is a wandering minstrel.
He focuses on the ongoing fact that, what goes on their minds when they perform
around places singing songs, narrating stories and how does that adapt to a
digital age. He further elaborated that the world has become “the great melting
pot” as a historic incident happening somewhere doesn’t affect a person residing
somewhere else. This is what the digital age represents. ‘How does a
storyteller keep pace with the rapid changes that happen in digital era?’ – a
question being thrown by the writer in flow.
He described storytelling as an
‘oral narrative’ and explained about the tectonic shift in storytelling, as
printing came much later and the writings got published, and the books got
available in mass media, along with emergence of another shifts of television,
films and digital. Rajesh voices that ‘digital’ is the most interactive way of
engaging with the mass.
The 5 Es
Rajesh explains the core of
storytelling lies in the 5 Es that makes a story or a writing hit the bull’s
eye. The first is “Emotion”, which he defined as the emotional connect with the
audience through the writing. Second is “Earthiness”, that speaks about the
non-plastic sense of a story which has more raw essence to it. Third is
“Earnestness”, that a writer must include in his/her writing to connect with
audience which eventually makes a good story great. Fourth is “Empathy”, where
he says that the audience should empathise with the story that has been
portrayed by the writer being millions of miles away. Fifth is “Engagement”,
which Rajesh designates to be ‘the’ most important thing for writing in digital
times as it needs to be interactive and not top down.
Local Feel and Global Reach
Rajesh further added a coinage of
two different words as “Going Lobal” as a mantra to stand out. He says Lobal
means the Local feel and the Global reach, which will eventually
be the core of storytelling in digital age.
Route to Roots
He used the signature tagline of
Amar Chitra Katha, “Route to your roots”, where he explains the three
‘tentpoles’ – Social, Cultural and Spiritual. Rajesh also spoke about the
dangers of ‘The single-story syndrome’, where he says “every story should have
multiple narrator which makes it livelier.” He elucidated that the Indian
Medieval writers have an excellent use of Nava Rasa taking example of
‘Mahabharata’.
Upon being asked about selecting
the themes of writing, he replied, “Developing stories is going back to your
heart. The theme comes from the core and that what makes it more engaging. The
compelling factor of writing is not just bread and butter but you start writing
what is in your heart.”
Iyer shared his erudite knowledge
during personal Q and A session with the writer of this article.
Writing for children & Novels
“Both require different temperaments. It's actually difficult to write for children since you need to get down to their age to match their sensibilities. Since I've commissioned hundreds of books for children as editor, I guess I understood the nuances. For novels the canvas and sweep is different. It's more natural since that matches your thinking pattern. There's hardly any preference frankly. It's the story that matters since it's the propelling factor.”
Digital Storyteller
“With storytelling platform
changing, storytellers need to update. It had always been the case. When oral
narrative gave way to printing, I'm sure they faced a similar predicament. And
likewise, with onset of films and later TV. Today's medium demands storytellers
to be on their toes... Always. Since changes are rampant and rapid, no choice
for storytellers except be adept and adapt.”
The core of storytelling that
remains the same
“Heart and soul. How much of
the two you put in your story matters, no matter what the medium is. From the
wandering minstrel who went from village to village narrating stories to a
storyteller today who caters to the entire world, the core remains the same...
As to how much heart and soul she/he puts into the story. It's ambiguous and
hard to define in tangible terms, but any story which has these two elements in
place hits bull's eye.”
Scriptwriting for Nilesh
Malhotra’s film “Monopoly: The Game of Money”
“In fact before writing
novels I used to be creative director and writer in TV. So that's a platform
I'm comfortable with too. Compared to novels, writing for films and TV is a
collaborative effort. You may have your individual vision, but it must match
the larger vision of the project, the director, the TV/ film studio. So, you do
lose the individuality that novel affords. But since the scale and reach is
humongous one understands that it cannot be an individual effort. Second even
while writing a script you have to see from the camera; what the frame will be
like.”
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