Rajat is a storyteller who believes that stories help us relive lost moments, experience unknown worlds and help us develop our minds. He shares his experiences related to storytelling, his inspirations, his favorite stories, and how the audience is an important part of the media profession.

Rajat Menghnani is a Storyteller and Program Director at Radio City-91.9 F.M.

Rajat is famously known as ‘Kahani Wala Rajat’. He looks after Udaipur, Kota, and Bikaner regions and hosts a show, ‘Chali Kahani’ in which he narrates stories written by famous writers of their times. Rajat says that he started as a Radio Jockey and now has an experience of twelve years in the Radio field. Today, he heads a team of Radio Jockeys, designing creative content and strategies.

Rajat was born and brought up in Ajmer. He did his schooling at St. Paul’s Senior Secondary School.

Reminiscing about his interesting journey, Rajat says that when he was in his 8th standard, he was known as ‘Mota Wala Rajat’ as he weighed 85 kg. However, he decided to change his image and in his 10th standard, narrated some poems on the occasion of Children’s Day and got a new identity of ‘Kavita Wala Rajat’. He says that it made him into a small celebrity in his school. In college, he became, ‘Theatre Wala Rajat’ as he started acting and taking part in cultural activities. In his second year of college, he got selected as a Radio Jockey and became ‘Radio Wala Rajat’.

Talking about his achievements, Rajat says that he won the ACF Gold Award for Best Storyteller, India Voice Best Male Podcast Award and then the Golden Mike Award for his show ‘Chali Kahani’. He also contributes his stories to a platform called, Rang-Manch, which is dedicated to creating audio dramas. This show was also awarded the Golden Mike Award.

Talking about his role models, Rajat says that the credit to make storytelling what it is today goes to Neelesh Mishra and so he considers him as his role model. Rajat says that Neelesh brought radical changes in the storytelling field and increased the listening span of people.

Sharing his views on the importance of storytelling, Rajat says that listening to stories helps expand our imagination and stimulates our minds. He quotes Albert Einstein who said, ‘Imagination is the most important tool in this world.’ Hence, expanding that imagination is what reading or listening to stories does, is what Rajat opines.

When asked about his inspirations in life, Rajat says that the biggest inspiration he gets is from news and articles he reads daily in newspapers. Rajat says that reading stories of para-athletes achieving laurels in their lives motivates him a lot. Also, he draws inspiration from the movie ‘Rang De Basanti’, which he feels is a holistic creation covering every stage and emotion of human life.

Rajat also suggests reading stories like ‘Kazaki’, and ‘Bade Bhai Sahab’ by Premchand for getting inspired.

When asked about struggles in his life, Rajat says that everyone related to the field of media is facing a single challenge and that is to get the attention of their viewers or listeners. He also feels that the audience plays an important role in what type of content will go famous as everything depends on viewership.

If given a time machine, Rajat would like to go back to the 90s era and relive that transition phase. Rajat says that the 90s was a time when everything was happening and coexisting like Cassettes with CDs, Cycles with Cars, and everyone had the time to enjoy what they had. He would like to relive that ‘slow life’ once again.

Advising the youngsters, Rajat says that whatever field they want to get into, they should first know that field and research the work before jumping into it.