Dhauli peace pagoda and (right) the Udayagiri caves. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, May 19: The baritone behind the light and sound show at the Khandagiri and Udayagiri caves will be Amitabh Bachchan’s. The actor will also lend his voice to similar shows at the Dhauli Buddhist peace pagoda and the Sun temple at Konark.

While the installation of the equipment on the famous 1st Century BC caves will start within a month or two, Dhauli and Konark will happen later.

The 30-minute shows will use English, Hindi and Odia for narration.

“For Khandagiri-Udayagiri, the legendary actor’s voice was finalised before the polls. Though we have also decided to use his voice for the two other shows, it will take a few more days because it has to be cleared by the new state government. We are hopeful that it will be passed,” said tourism and culture secretary Arabinda Kumar Padhee.

“With the voice of Amitabh Bachchan, the three shows will attract more people. The veteran actor will narrate the tales and legends associated with the three sites,” Padhee told The Telegraph.

Tourism director Manoranjan Patnaik, who met senior officials of the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) in New Delhi on May 13 regarding the show, said while the script would be prepared by the central tourism promotion body, the content and voice would be selected by the state government. “We have chosen Bachchan’s voice,” he said.

Many other well-known voices, used in light and sound shows elsewhere, such as Kabir Bedi, Suresh Oberoi, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and Gul Panag were among the list of probables.

Patnaik said that the three shows would start within 10 or 12 months once the infrastructure was in place. The three projects would be developed with an investment of Rs 20 crore.

The Khandagiri-Udayagiri narrations will include legends of emperor Kharavela and the development of Jain religion. At Konark, the legends associated with the building of the famous monument and Dharmapada will be there. At Dhauli, the show will be based on the Kalinga war, Buddha and his tales.

Authorities say the new laser-based technology will not harm the monuments at all. “The earlier one at Khandagiri-Udayagiri, which operated only for a few weeks in 2005, used cables and other structures and damaged the surface of the ancient rocks. But this new technology will never damage the rock surface,’’ said the tourism director.

“The new technology will use a movable base that looks like an OB van used by TV channels to broadcast news. From the laser-emitting base, the visual shows will be created on the surface of the monument. The laser recreation technology is an advanced system used in modern planetariums,” said a senior tourism official.

In the past, the state government, in association with ITDC and the Archaeological Survey of India had engaged IIT, Kharagpur, to study the impact of the new laser technology on monuments. “Scientists from IIT, Kharagpur, had already given their nod to the use of the technology citing no threat for the monument,” said Patnaik.