Pune International Literary Festival to take place between September 8thand 10th
Pune, August 23: Pune’s first and the only festival of English Literature the Pune International Literary Festival (PILF) will take place between September 8th and 10th. This is the 5thedition of the festival and it would be held at YASHADA. This was announced by Dr. Manjiri Prabhu, acclaimed novelist and the festival Director during a Press Conference held in the city today. Bharat Agarwal from Vishwakarma Publications,
Dr. Prof. Madhuri Kulkarni, Associate Dean MIT – WPU and
Bipinchandra Chaugule member of the organizing committee of the festival were also present on the occasion. The festival is being organized with support from MIT – WPU and Vishwakarma Publications. Entry to the festival is free.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Prabhu said, “More than 70 literary festivals happen in the country. However, Pune, which is often referred as the Oxford of East and the Cultural Capital of the state did not have any literature fest of its own. This fact was pinching me for a long time and thus the idea to start PILF was conceived. The basic objective of the fest is to facilitate a direct connect between authors and the readers and thereby promoting the book reading culture.”
This year the PILF would be inaugurated by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on Friday, September 8that 12 noon. The Sarod Maestro would then be interviewed by Milee Ashwarya in the first ‘Yours Truly’ session of the festival. The second important session titled as My Story, Our Story would feature Shabana Azami and Javed Akhtar, both will discuss various subjects including women empowerment, films – their passion and work. The Day 1 will also feature Rajani Pandit, first lady detective of India in a special session ‘Meet the Real-Life Detective: Sharing Notes’.
This would be followed by the session of Rakshanda Jalil on the writings of famous Urdu Writer Ismat Chugtai. Many other sessions including some of the best-known writers including Rajiv Mehrotra (Trustee – Secretary of The Foundation for Universal Responsibility of H.H. Dalai Lama), Daniel Hahn (Writer and Translator), Dr. Roman Gerodimos (Political Scientist), Thomas Biebl (Salzburg Global Seminar), Irene Judah (Presentation on Bene Israel), Ashok Chopra and Udayan Mitra will also take place simultaneously in different venues at YASHADA.
The day 2 would have the second ‘Yours Truly’ session of Former High Court Judge Jt. Vidyasagar Kanade who has done a lot of work in the laws related women empowerment. This day will also have a discussion on the political landscape of the country in session called The Political Landscape: Boon or Bane? with participants like Uday Mahurkar (Deputy Editor India Today), Tuhin Sinha (Political Commentator), Shankkar Iyer (Journalist) and Priyanka Chaturvedi (Spokesperson Indian National Congress). Sagarika Ghose will converse with Shantanu Guha Ray (Investigative Journalist) on ‘Indira – India’s Most Powerful Prime Minister in the following session.
Other eminent personalities would share their thoughts on various subjects include Anu Aga, Radhakrishnan Pillai, Harish Bhat, Sudip Sen, Meera Borwankar, Actress Divya Dutta, Kirti Kulhari, Jayant Kriplani, Micky Mehta, Sudha Menon, Vikram Bhatt (Film Personality), Ira Trivedi and Ashwini Iyer Tiwari.
On the last day of the PILF noted Marathi actor, director and film producer Mahesh Kothare will feature in the 3rd Yours Truly session of the fest. Audience will also get to hear thoughts of Emraan Hashmi (Film actor), Ekta Kapoor (Film and TV serial producer), Hussain Zaidi (Author), Khalid Mohamed (Film critic and director), Tanuja Chandra (Film Director), Alison Joseph (London Based Crime Writer) and Abhay Vaidya (Author of book Who killed Osho).
The 5th edition of PILF will conclude with the very special program titled as ‘Asha Parekh – The Hit Girl’, where Asha Parekh would be interviewed by Khalid Mohamed and Ajay Mago.
Voice of Women is the social theme of some sessions during the fest. Every year the fest has an exhibition dedicated to a writer. This year it is dedicated to Jane Austin, famous English Writer of 17th century.
Another special feature of this edition of PILF is a special section for children called the Treasure Island. This section has many interesting and enchanting sessions on aspects like creative writing, poetry, Yoga and Fitness, Environment awareness, art of story-telling, crafts, drawing and many more. Participated by eminent personalities like Swaroop Sampat, Candy Gourlay and many others.
The special exhibition this time features famous author Jane Austin.
The winners of this year’s manuscript submission contest in association with Vishwakarma Publications will be announced in the festival and the books of the last year’s contest winners will also be published there.
