About Kathaparva

A home for Telugu short fiction, and a route from a story on a page to a story on a screen.

The name joins two words. Katha is a story. Parva is a book of the Mahabharata — the unit the epic is built from, one complete movement within something much larger. Every story published here is a parva: finished in itself, and part of a bigger whole.

Who this is for

Writers working in Telugu who have nowhere obvious to put a short story. Literary magazines are few and slow. Social media buries good work in a day. Neither leads anywhere.

Producers and directors looking for original material, who currently find it through personal networks — and so keep meeting the same small circle of writers.

The gap we're closing

Telugu cinema adapts very little original short fiction, and it isn't for lack of writing. There's no pipeline. A producer who wants an original story has no catalogue to browse, no way to know who holds the rights, and no efficient way to reach the author. A writer with a story worth filming has no way to be found.

Both sides want the same thing and can't see each other. This is where they can.

Our vision

Telugu short fiction becomes a recognised source for Indian screen storytelling — and the writer who wrote it is credited, paid, and known by name.

Our mission

To give Telugu writers a place where their stories are read and taken seriously, and to give producers original work with clear rights and a reachable author — so a good story reaches the screen on terms the writer would choose.

What we hold to

You keep your rights. Publishing here assigns nothing. Kathaparva is a place where a conversation can start, not a party to whatever you agree afterwards.

The entry fee is a filter, not the business. It exists so submissions are considered rather than casual. If it ever became our main income, we'd be selling hope to writers instead of stories to producers.

You should never be worse off for having published here. This one shapes the product more than any other. It's why we think carefully about who can read a full manuscript and on what terms.

Get in touch

Write to hello@kathaparva.com.