Aha, an OTT player focusing on content in Telugu and Tamil has forayed into the genre of documentaries. Marking Srirama Navami today, it started streaming ‘aha Godavari’, a documentary made by Gyabo Network Private Limited.
Produced by Swathi Mullapudi, the one-hour documentary captures the journey of the river, which is the lifeline of crores of people in Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.
The river Godavari, which is often referred to as Dakshin Ganga, is the lifeline of crores of people in Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. The second-longest river after the river Ganga, the Godavari flows 1,465 km, from its origin at Triambakeshwar on the Western Ghats in Maharashtra till it converges with the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh and at Yanam.
“We are looking at developing local content that captures the diversity of culture and heritage,” an aha spokesperson said at a preview of the documentary.
“We wanted to capture the cultural, religious, and economic significance of the river,” Swathi Mullapudi, director and producer of the documentary, said.
Religious connect
Along the course of the river, you see a number of important Hindu places of worship, which include Basara (the Saraswati temple) and Bhadrachalam (Srirama temple). “Interestingly, it has a special relationship with Sikhism too. Gur Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, spent his last days at Nanded. Maharaja Ranjit Singh built a gurdwara on the banks of the Godavari, the producer said.
In Rajahmundry, there is a mosque near the river. “It was built in 1305,” she said.