Bangalore decks up for literary fest Friday

Bangalore: Celebrity authors, speakers, actors and theatre personalities have descended here for the three-day Bangalore Literature Festival beginning Friday. "The second edition of the city's flagship literary event will witness renowned authors engaging audiences with diverse themes, scores of interviews and literary sessions over the next three days," the event's founding trustee and author Vikram Sampath said in a statement here Thursday. The fest is being held at Star Hotel at Venankani Park on the city's southern outskirts.

Among the themes figuring prominently are '100 years of Indian cinema' with a panel discussion on adaptation of biographies to bio-pics by actor Farhan Akhtar, director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and lyricist-writer Prasoon Joshi, who scripted the Hindi film "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", which was recently released in theatres across the country. "As Bangalore lives up to its cosmopolitan status, we have striven to reflect this in our programming. The focus is on being experimental yet inclusive with more languages, a blend of serious and light writing, intense and diverse themes coupled with celebrity attendance and general interest panels," said Sampath.

 Prominent Kannada poet, playwright and film director Chandrashkhara Kambara will launch the event titled 'Festival Edition of Beantown' in the presence of literary celebrities like Ramachandra Guha, Christoph Betrams, Nabaneeta Dev Sen and Ramakant Rath. "Discussion on cinema writing will feature veterans such as Baradwaj Rangan, Sidharth Bhatia, Sharmishta Gooptu, M.K. Raghavendra, Kishwar Desai, Bhawana Somaaya, Jayant Kaikini and others," Sampath said. Poet Gulzar, who wowed audiences in the fest's first edition last year, will discuss on film lyrics with Prasoon Joshi. "Goethe-Institute and Max Mueller Bhavan are collaborating to feature Germany as a focus country. 

Leading German authors such as celebrated slam poet Bas Botcher, Tilman Rammstedt, Chirstopher Kloebel, Saskya Jain and Abbas Khider are participating," Sampath said. Among overseas authors taking part are French poet Aurelia Lassaque and Ian Jack of "Granta" and "Mofussil Junction". 

The session on South Asian writing will feature noted authors from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka like Babar Ayaz, Mira Hashmi, Kanak Mani Dixit, Farah Ghuznawi and Ashok Ferry. As the festival is being held in Karnataka, a special session will be held on Kannada literature, featuring U.R. Anantamurthy, H.S. Venkatesh Murthy, Nissar Ahmed, Venkatachala Shastry, Narahalli Balasubrahmanya, Viveka Rai, K.S. Bhagwan, Jayant Kaikini, and Padekal Vishnu Bhatt. They will also discuss a host of issues pertaining to the development of the Kannada language. 

The first edition of the fest was held within the city in December 2012. "A special session on spirituality and writing by Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and lectures by eminent historians Ramachandra Guha and William Dalrymple and nuances of fashion writing with Wendell Rodricks are other highlights of the grand event," Sampath added.