StoryMan AKA Vikas Baid from Hyderabad is here to tell stories in a way you have never heard before

"After years and years of experience, I have understood how to go with the flow while conducting workshops for children across all ages," explains Vikas Baid, who is based out of Hyderabad 
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There is a difference between storytelling and story playing and Vikas Baid is the practitioner of the latter. You see, story playing involves different levels of engagement and is an art like no other. "The idea is not just to grab a mic and tell a story in a way in which the medium, whether it's theatre, film or otherwise, comes first and the story later. No. It is about engaging the audience," says the 29-year-old. So to take this trend forward, this Hyderabadi youngster started StoryMan and with his latest ventures, it's all about letting stories take the lead.

In his element | (Pic: Story Man)

Vikas, who was born in Bikaner, Rajasthan, and brought up in Hyderabad, always wanted to be a performer but also much more than just that. This pursuit of 'much more' took him all around the country, literally. For example, the Togalu Gombeyaata shadow puppetry workshop in Mussoorie which taught him how to put on a puppet show using daily objects, which really helped him with the visualisation aspect. Or the movement workshop in Kamshet, a village in Maharashtra, that opened up his senses. A clowning workshop helped him just have fun and learn the importance of it, while a material theatre workshop taught him how to tell stories through clay. "Learning all these different artforms really helped me understand the best way to make stories come alive," says Vikas. Encompassing all this, he came back to Hyderabad from Mumbai in 2019, after seven years, and joined ACK Alive centre in Hyderabad to curate workshops and create content. And that's how he arrived at StoryMan.

You know how we have five senses, right? Vikas believes there are two more, heart and intuition (if you look closely, even his logo depicts these seven senses) and it is all these senses that he wants to capture by using seven elements, namely character, sound, movement, imagery, food, photographs and games! He even calls his workshops 'work shows', focused on children of ages three to 14, because it's all about showcasing the story itself. "Basically, I use story to explain any concept," he says. He recently conducted virtual theatre camps for Dussehra through which he retold stories of Maa Durga. He has worked with various international schools in Mumbai to teach concepts via stories in collaboration with Nutty Scientists, an initiative that believes in learning through experimentation. "The thing is, stories are universal and you can connect them with anything. You can use it as a medium in academics too because we need more thinkers today," he explains.

With students | (Pic: Story Man)

So apart from conducting work shows, Vikas' idea behind starting StoryMan is to lend the same philosophy to branding and so on too. Would be interesting to see how he does this, don't you think?

His work behind the camera:
- Camp Jungle Brooks web series: For a camp in Manali, showcasing the different elements of the camp
- Blur Boulder: This four-minute film was selected for the IMF Mountain Film Festival 2020

For more on him, check out facebook.com/StoryManio-582229609125509

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