Artist Mir Afsar Ali Explores Sound And Stories In A World Which Only Wants To See

When Mir Afsar Ali decided to quit radio after a stint close to three decades, he was about to navigate identity and relevance in a world whose tryst with patience hung by a loose thread. In search of a product for posterity, he knew he had a distinct combination of his voice and identity. A household name in Bengal, Mir’s voice not only became synonymous with radio but also with storytelling and aural familiarity across age groups.

In his stint as a radio jockey at Mirchi Bangla, Mir also spearheaded Sunday Suspense, an immensely popular audio storytelling show known for its production value, variety, and longevity. As he drifted away from his familiar world of radio and television, he launched a platform that would not only keep his relationship with audio going strong, but create a space for storytelling, in its most intimate, honest, and vibrant form. Thus, when his new audio story platform Goppo Mir-er Thek (GMT) was launched in January 2023, the YouTube channel already had 80,000 subscribers when its first episode dropped.

In a world heavily riddled with visual dependency, Mir continues to walk against the wind, with a basket of ideas, a bagful of stories and an unadulterated love for storytelling.

In Storytelling, A Passage 

Oral storytelling, weaved into India’s cultural anatomy, has been instrumental in passing down cultural texts, history, and traditions. With practices specific to tribes and communities, oral storytelling has been wired around traditions which are diverse in design and diction, thus perpetuating the culture through ages with the help of different mediums. For Mir, realising the creative potential of storytelling and how it keeps shaping the imagination was his induction into the world of sonic curiosity.

Mir says, “I find it fascinating that even before languages were developed, different civilisations found ways to communicate. It’s important to connect the dots that history has mapped for us. Everything that we get to know about human civilisations has been passed on from one civilization to another, and down generations through oral stories."

Underlining the importance of the nomad as the bearer of such stories and threading it to the present, Mir comments, “How would the wanderer, the traveller, come into existence? A nomad would travel from one place to another and would carry stories with him. That's exactly how people got to know about their neighbours. So, in essence, audio storytelling is a very primitive and ancient practice that has been redefined by digital intervention."

He further attributes shaping of imagination to the culture of domestic storytelling and folklore - carried by parents and grandparents, where more than authenticity, it is about familiarity. “Relatability and trust in whatever stories I hear from my grandparents or my parents, who are organic storytellers, more than logic, shaped my imagination,” he adds.

Sound of a Story 

With GMT, Mir’s audio stories have been drawing consistent numbers on platforms over the last three years, with a few of them even playing close to five hours. As the world grapples with lessening attention spans, Mir tackles an intriguing question - what keeps his audio stories going strong especially when a huge chunk of his listeners are young people.

With visual media’s scope and presence, how does an oral storyteller survive in today’s world? 

“This is an age where people have the attention span of a squirrel. So, yes, the task is uphill. But since you mentioned specifically about youngsters being attracted to the art of storytelling, I believe it is the belief, trust, and goodwill that drive it. They trust that the story would be narrated to them in a beautiful manner. Beyond that, the familiarity quotient has also worked to a great advantage for me,” says Mir, who has also worked in a range of films, television and comedy shows.

“I've been fortunate enough to garner a healthy amount or number of listeners or subscribers. It is my fortune to belong to the ‘subscribed to’ segment. In all honesty, youngsters are losing out on patience to read books. So, if you give them a concise form, they're happy with that. And if that is convincing and cooked effectively, they connect even without consuming the literary form. They have probably never read the story, but they've heard the audio story,” notes Mir, whose audio stories have been a curious favourite among the young consumers despite their lengths.

Mir believes the collapse of reading habits among the youth has contributed heavily to the boom of the audio story market. “So how much of a rush are we in that we do not have the time to pause, read, think, rethink, or imagine for ourselves? Hence, audio stories work for that huge segment of people who unfortunately don't have the patience to rummage through the pages of a book. They'd rather spend time listening to an almost five-hour story. I'm surprised a reel of mine doesn't get consumed for its entire 30 seconds or 90 seconds but a five-hour story (with breaks) is being consumed by my listener. It's strange. The science or the arithmetic behind it still eludes me,” he says.

Passion Beyond Viability

Planning for the future might not be Mir’s favourite thing to do, but engaging the flight of fancy every passing day sure is. He does not shy away from speaking of the financial challenges that the three years of GMT have brought with it. “When it comes to content, planning is just not solely dependent on your effort or your skills but on the socio-economic status, the market around you and numerous factors. When COVID struck, a major chunk of artists and technicians were left without jobs. Most shoots were called off. New content was not being generated. What could have prepared once for that?” asks Mir.

For him, walking away from the familiar world of radio needed a definite transition, if not a change. “I'm not on radio anymore. After 28 years, it was certainly difficult, but I stand by the decision. And, I had a certain thing pinned in mind - that I needed to cater to the people who used to love me and listen to me with a product that would have longevity,” says Mir, speaking of the decision to build GMT.

For every story that the world cuts short, the challenge to be relevant as a conversationalist only pushes an artist like Mir. "When I am narrating a story, the listener should feel that the person is in front of me. In a room full of people, you often take a person and the conversation to the corner of the room. My job as a storyteller is to take my listener to that corner of the room where they are safe, comfortable and invested," he says.

 Addressing the business, he notes that people often have eyebrows raised looking at the cost of an audio product, "The investment question is a tricky one. It's difficult to convince people to invest in this form. They are ready to spend ten times that money on some shorter content. These are pressure points that we have collectively been handling. Even after radio connected civilizations together, people are not convinced about the power of audio. Thus, selling an audio product is certainly a huge challenge."

For Mir, the biggest objective behind his labour of love, GMT, is to provide a platform to voice artists. "They have mostly been neglected and treated as filler artists. I have worked in Bengal all my life and I have seen how dismal it is. Voice artists are paid peanut skins. They are paid by the minute or by the number of words they speak. Forget basic conveyance. And, a lifetime of anonymity. And that is exactly why I started GMT. Not principally to earn and spend lavishly, but to earn and survive, and give these people what they deserve. Even after three years, we have not broken even, and we stay afloat with the cooperation of these very artists," reflects Mir. He promotes the voice artists through reels on his social media platforms. "It means a lot to put a face to a name and a voice," he adds.

Reversing the usual flow where the audio platform would adapt a literary or creative work, Mir's platform brings together original stories and other works created exclusively for the platform, under its banner. Besides supporting new voices, he taps into an interesting model where an audio story platform not just adapts but also produces content/stories for other mediums to adapt. Mir says, " GMT is all about the ecosystem. We are being approached for the rights to stories written for the audio realm under our banner. The stories will be adapted into different forms."

The Voiceprint 

Relevance, for Mir, is an ever-evolving definition. However, in a world running the other way, Mir has managed to sell a product which isn't momentary, trend-based, fast, or glossy. In the congested realm of content and podcasts, Mir believes, it's the voiceprint that sets his product apart. "Just like your finger has a unique print, your vocal features are also distinct. It's called the voiceprint. That is what probably gives me the edge. It is an everyday task for me, to keep getting recognised by my voice without any visual support. The art beyond the mixer is a deeply personal one," he quips.

Mir compares the voice of an audio storyteller to the morning tea - a necessary catalyst in the life of the listener. It's the bond that keeps the engine running for content in the audio form. "The world of content and technology will give one layers of subtext at different points in time. It's very important to recognise that and take that bus, with a hint of faith, passion, and a hunger to keep going. The day a content creator is content with his work, that's the day his content will stop working," he says.

Although consuming content has long departed from being a community experience, Mir believes audio still binds people through a sense of collective intrigue despite being an intimate space between the storyteller and the listener. 

With confidence in his voice and faith in the power of a story, Mir says with a smile, "We might not be able to take on visual media with numbers, but someday, it will be of immense satisfaction to realise, as storytellers, we were heard, we are being heard and we will still be heard in the years to come."