This summer, TANA invited a group of artists including a burrakatha
daLam, which went around US presenting a program called telugu sampradaaya
kaLaakadambam. From what I gathered, the average number of people attending
these programs, even in major cities was close to 50. Though there is a lot of
lip service paid to the importance of preserving these arts, there is no
interest in 'people' to preserve these arts. They will eventually die or an
exponent would find a way to interest people so that some of these arts can be
revived (as vempaTi did with koochipooDi). Sometimes, the original art form
would be modified (synthetic folk was a term I heard a leading artist in
Hyderabad mention) to suit the modern taste. Many of the socalled jaanapada
gEyaalu that get sold in prerecorded cassettes belong to this category.
Syamalarao gaaru mentioned the name of chintaa deekshitulu in connection
with folk songs. Though I am not aware of Sri deekshitulu's contribution to folk
songs, I remember a terrific story by him called 'daasari paaTa', about an
itinerant story teller.
Regards. --- Chowdary Jampala