Review of 2009 Festival

DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2009 brought together world-class writers and artists from across continents, cultures, forms and genres including: Vikram Seth, Pico Iyer, Simon Schama, Tina Brown, Shashi Tharoor, Gulzar,  Tarun Tejpal, Sunil Gangopadhayay, U R Ananthamurthy, Hari Kunzru, Wendy Doniger and Udayan Vajpeyi. The festival also hosted writers from Pakistan, Nadeem Aslam, Mohammed Hanif and Daniyal Mueenuddin. There were more than 140 authors attending the festival with a healthy mixture of the east with the west.
The USP of the festival was that it was accessible to the general public at no cost.
Capacity press attendance generating over Rs 16 crores of publicity in India alone.

Key Features

  • Film screening of Slumdog Millionaire and In Conversation with Vikas Swarup
  • Rumi – with Coleman Barks, Kudsi Erguner and Muzaffar Ali
  • Lunch by celebrated chef Manju Malhi
  • The Intelligence Square debate with leading luminaries from the social and political sector
  • In Conversation with Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor and Pico Iyer
  • In Conversation with Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan
  • Defining Diaspora
  • In Conversation with Gulzar
  • The Writers’ Ball hosted by Mrs Surina Narula & Mr HS Narula

The festival also had a host of evening concerts. Over the 5 days we had Salman Ahamad
( Junoon Unplugged ) from Pakistan, Shye Ben Tzur – The Sufi qawwali experience from Israel/India, Cheb i Sabbah from Algeria, Paban Das Baul, a master of the dubki (a small tambourine) and a hypnotic vocalist, Rajasthan roots – a collective of folk musicians which promotes the performing arts of Rajasthan, by bringing folk to a multicultural platform, creating contemporary folk music, appealing to varied musical tastes. Susheela Raman and Sam Mills performed exclusively for the festival. There were also poetry readings by Deepti Naval and Prasoon Joshi.

ATTENDEES

Over 12000 people attended the many sessions and workshops during the course of the festival.  These included High Commissioners and Ambassadors and Cultural heads of International missions, delegates from Mumbai, Calcutta and Delhi who travelled down especially for the festival, publishers, students, University professors and guests of sponsors and supporters of the festival. 30% are international guests, 30% from the metro cities and 40% from Jaipur.