Hyd Lit Fest to be held at HPS

December 05, 2014 12:30 am | Updated June 13, 2016 12:01 am IST - HYDERABAD:

One of the most iconic buildings of Hyderabad, reflecting its great heritage, the Hyderabad Public School, will form the backdrop of the upcoming Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) 2015, to be held from January 23 to 26.

Unlike the previous editions, the fifth edition of the fest will be held entirely on the 100-year-old school campus in Begumpet.

The HLF 2015 will have about 70 literary and cultural events lined up over three days with an expected participation of more than 100 authors and artists.

“The Hyderabad Lit Fest has become an important part of the city and this time there is more significance to the approach and outlook of the fest. Since HPS is a heritage building and a city landmark, the festival fits in the venue very well,” said Ajay Gandhi, one of the directors of the fest.

“Though there are many Lit fests happening across the country, the HLF is gaining prominence and getting talked about in literary circles. ”

Stating that they would like to make the event bigger with time, Mr. Gandhi invited interested citizens to support the event by funding it.

The organisers are expecting a turnout of about 15,000 for the HLF 2015, almost double the footfall witnessed in the last edition.

The guest nation of the event will be Poland and there will be an exhibition of Polish comics, literature and culture.

The Indian language in focus will be Urdu and there will be literary sessions, cultural events and workshops of the language.

There will also be a session to mark 100 years of World War I. Entry will be free at all the events .

“There will be some new features in the fest,” informed T. Vijay Kumar, professor of English, Osmania University.

“More than seven per cent of the world’s languages are endangered and this is high when compared with endangered animal species. We will have a plenary session exclusively on endangered languages.

Since we want to welcome people with disabilities, we will also have a session where the speaker will be differently-abled.

Since Urdu is associated with Islam, we want to show that language has to do more with culture. We will have Muslim writers writing in Telugu at the event.”

He informed that 99 per cent of the speakers at the HLF 2015 would be first-timers and they do not intend to repeat the speakers.

Amrita Desai of Goethe Zentrum and one of the directors of the fest said that a series of pre-events had already begun and the HLP will be promoted in various schools across the city.

Poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, former Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh, actor Tom Alter, journalist Arun Shourie, film director Mahesh Bhatt, novelist Ashok Banker, litterateur G.N. Devy, journalist Anirudhha Bahal, danseuse Leela Samson are the prominent personalities expected at the fest.

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