BENGALURU: After an online and a phygital event, the Bengaluru Literature Festival (BLF) is back in its physical form this time. With over 250 international, Indian and city-based authors – travel writer Pico Iyer, Sahitya Akademi winners Sarah Joseph and Ambai, and Jnanpith awardee Damodar Mauzo – this year’s edition is the largest since the festival’s inception nearly a decade ago.
“After the last two years, hosting the festival in a physical form feels like hosting the first edition of the event. There was so much uncertainty about when the pandemic would end, and to be organising the largest event we have ever done just two years after the pandemic is surreal,” says Shinie Antony, founder and director of BLF.
Antony, who has lived in Mumbai, Delhi and Kochi and other places, finds the Bengaluru audience to be most receptive. “The biggest triumph for the city has been its audience,” she shares, adding that in other cities, organisers have a hard time convincing people to attend a literature festival on a Sunday.
The two-day event features not only conversations and activities around a vast range of literary works but also much entertainment with the likes of Bollywood actor-director-singer Farhan Akhtar in attendance. An evening of Sufi singing and poetry also awaits the audience.
Panel discussions on a litany of recently-released books authored by notable writers and poets such as Jerry Pinto, TJS George, and Barkha Dutt, will provide an ‘illuminating experience’ to lovers of literature, says Antony.
BLF is also commemorating the life of late Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar by naming their various venues Gandhada Gudi, Raajakumara and Yuvarathnaa.
(The 2022 edition of the festival is set to kick off at Hotel Lalit Ashok on Kumarakrupa Road today. For a detailed schedule, log onto bangaloreliteraturefestival.org)
Watch out
Acclaimed author and poet Jerry Pinto
Senior journalist and historian TJS George
Author-politician Arun Shourie
Classical dancer and actor Mallika Sarabhai
Novelist Shobhaa De
Writer/philanthropist Rohini Nilekani
Journalist Barkha Dutt