Burra Katha has a distinct form of heritage of story telling to the huge crowd. While story telling to strengthen the verbal idea Burra is used. Burra Katha named after the musical instrument "Burra", which is a modern form of ballad singing. It is believed that this dance is evolved from traditional Tandana Katha. This dance art preaches, entertains and provides relaxation to the rural folk. A Burra Katha group consists of three artistes one being at the center and the other two acts as assistants under him known as Vantalu. The center artist is usually dressed with a long angaraksha, a beautiful turban with a crest feather, a tight paijama or dhoti, a colourful waistband and jingling bells on his knees. He holds a Tambura or sitar and Andelu and a kerchief and sings the ballad while playing the instruments. The assistants, similarly dressed, play the instruments like Barralu or Budigalu.

Burra refers to the tambura, a musical instrument played by the storyteller (kathakudu) to grab the attention of viewers. This main player beats music in another manner, too - he wears a metal ring on his right thumb, and holds another like ring in his hand. He also introduces the story, which is mainly based on history or mythology. He constantly addresses to the co-artists. There are drummers, who stand on either side of him. With them on the right, stands the Rajkiya, who enhance to a social and political commentary, to the left, the hasyam clown for comic relief. They play the dakki (earthen drums of two heads), which is an important part of a Burra Katha show.

While the duration of the entire show is time bound, the metrical composition differs at different stages, depicting the moods and incidents. Besides meters like Dwipada, Daruvu, Kandardhas, Kirtans the ballads compositions now contains the variety of songs in form and content.