TALKING CRIME

Sapna Sarfare

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True crime is consistently high in terms of content for movies, books, TV, radio, and audiobooks. Audible has brought out Desi Crime, a gripping new audio book format chronicling South Asia’s most chilling true crime stories. Aishwarya Singh and Aryaan Misra, who co-host the audio book, are popular podcasters who co-host the true crime podcast — Desi Crime.

This chapterised compilation showcases 20 real-life cases from the Indian subcontinent and its diasporas. Created and hosted by Aishwarya Singh and Aryaan Misra, produced by Desi Studios and published by Pan Macmillan, these stories delve into some of South Asia’s twisted and haunting criminal cases, from honour killing to espionage and even cannibalism. Aishwarya Singh speaks about this crime audio book offering Misra, the stories, working with Audible, and more.

Excerpts from the interview:

What is it about Desi Crime that might excite the listeners?

I think this is a very novel format for written material in India, specifically, the way we've constructed the audiobook. The podcast is an interlaced narrative mixed with thoughts from the other co-host, which was the first time I experienced a book like that. It’s a book called The Book of Joy, which is a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I remember finding it such a jarring format because it’s not normal to have someone else's thoughts interlaced in a book that youre reading. We've tried to pay homage to our own format using that. It’s 20 really gut-wrenching stories, moving tales of the subcontinent. Two are stories that have never been heard on the podcast or on our channel before.