BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Literary Festival (OLF), eastern India’s flagship literary event organised by The New Indian Express, is all set to kick off here on Saturday.
The two-day celebration of literature, arts, music and cinema will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi at Hotel Mayfair Convention in the presence of editorial director of TNIE Prabhu Chawla, CEO of The New Indian Express Group Lakshmi Menon and resident editor of TNIE, Odisha, Siba Mohanty.
The 13th edition of the festival, themed ‘Notes from the Field: New Narratives, Living Realities,’ brings together 30 distinguished speakers across 16 specially-curated sessions. Over two days, the OLF-2025 will gather a vibrant array of voices and diversity of ideas in a bid to create a space for dialogue and churn bold new narratives to shape India’s social and cultural landscape.
The opening day will feature an engaging mix of conversations and debates. Noted actor and filmmaker Amol Palekar along with his spouse and equally distinguished litterateur Sandhya Gokhale will deliberate on ‘Comrades in Arts: Love, Life, and Literature’. This will be followed by acclaimed Indian writer KR Meera’s conversation with consulting editor of The Sunday Standard Ravi Shankar on ‘Crime Friction: When Darkness Comes Calling.’ Another interesting session, ‘Translating India: The Multicultural Country’ will host writers and translators Rakhshanda Jalil, Mini Krishnan and Lipika Bhushan, while author Ashwin Sanghi, known for penning bestselling conspiracy thrillers that blend history, mythology and contemporary fiction, will speak on ‘Myth and Mystery: Journeys Into the Past’ in a session with noted author and journalist Kaveree Bamzai.
Former member of Planning Commission Arun Maira will share his thoughts on ‘Making of a Nation: Fixing the Economy’, while historians Mahalakshmi Ramakrishnan and Chithra Madhavan will deliberate on ‘Reclaiming History: An Evolving Study’ with Lipika Bhushan.
The day will also explore women’s voices in Odia literature with novelist Chirashree Indrasingh, poet Hiranmayee Mishra, author Sucheta Mishra and writer Subhashree Lenka in ‘Contours of Change: The Women of Odia Literature’. The spotlight will be on ace actor and composer Raghubir Yadav who will share his journey in ‘Singer, Actor, Storyteller: One Life, Many Texts’. Data journalist Rukmini S will discuss ‘Numbers and Narratives: Using Data to Tell India’s Stories’. The day will come to an end with noted authors Balaji Vittal and Anirudha Bhattacharjee revisiting the golden age of music in ‘The Gilded Age of Music: Revisiting Kishore Kumar’. A short session by Ravi Shankar on ‘Romance with Poetry: Songs of Love’ will also be a highlight of the first day.
Sunday too promises equally compelling sessions in which authors and journalists Neha Dixit and Ipsita Chakravarty and writer Divya Kandukuri will speak on ‘Margins to Mainstream: Chronicling Invisible Lives’ in a session with journalist Lovely Majumdar, while political thinker Ram Madhav will present his views on ‘The Hindutva Paradigm: A New Definition’.
A special and riveting session ‘Reel Renaissance: Return of Originality and Craft to Odia Cinema’ will feature director Jagdish Mishra, ace filmmakers Sabyasachi Mohapatra and Susant Misra, director Anupam Patnaik. Bollywood movie Dhadak 2 director Shazia Iqbal and writer Rahul Badwelkar will engage in ‘Finding One’s Voice: Cutting Through the Clutter,’ while artist, writer and graphic novelist Appupen will lead a session on ‘Drawing the Future: Art and AI’. The festival will end with a Just a Minute contest featuring more than 20 participants. The winners will be presented with cash prizes.