Audio book to retain Gandhi legacy
An Indian publisher says he hopes a new audio book based on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s autobiography will help to make India’s beloved independence leader more popular among the country’s younger generation.
High-profile film director Shekhar Kapur provides the voice for the Mahatma’s words, said Narayan Parasuram, creative director of Charkha Audio Books, at the recording’s release ceremony on Monday.
“Through this audio book we have primarily tried to imbibe the spirit of Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth,” Parasuram said in Bombay, India‘s financial and entertainment centre.
Gandhi led India‘s successful non-violent freedom struggle against the British colonialists in the 1940s but did not assume any office after the country won independence in 1947.
He was assassinated by a Hindu hardliner in 1948.
Visionary
“As I grew up, Gandhi’s teachings weren’t stuffed down my throat by schoolteachers. But I realise that he is a true modern-day visionary,” said Kapur, director of the Oscar-nominated film Elizabeth.
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“As I grew up, Gandhi’s teachings weren’t stuffed down my throat by schoolteachers. But I realise that he is a true modern-day visionary” Shekhar Kapur, |
The audio book features narration by popular Indian actor Nandita Das, who said she felt close to the subject because her mother was related to Gandhi.
“I got to read the autobiography repeatedly, and becoming its narrator was amazing,” she said.
Parasuram said Kapur had not tried to sound exactly like Gandhi.
“The effort here is to capture the feel of the book so that the younger generation will be able to readily relate to it,” he said.