Interview: Sanjoy K Roy

Director, Jaipur Literature Festival

(Many people have been asking me what the litfest is all about and how it started. Who better than the festival director himself to answer these queries)

How did the concept of the Jaipur Literature Festival strike you?

It actually started as the Jaipur Virasat Festival (JVF) many years ago. Faith Singh was the JVF trustee and she saw what we did at the Edinburgh, Hong Kong and South Africa festivals and she approached me. We helped her initially to setup a festival, which was a performing arts festival where a small literature segment was introduced three years ago. At that time it was a very small section…maybe a few writers in conversation and not much more.  Because the festival was going through some difficulties, last year, we took it over and decided that the one way to grow a festival is to just make it mega. And the minute that happens, the scales, though daunting, sometimes tend to work because you are able to attract people to support you.

Last year, we decided to split the festival and now, the JVF happens in March. We did the literature festival and brought in the world - some 60 odd authors, incredible music and lots of audience. This year, it’s gone through the roof! We’ve got 167 authors and delegates have come in from Canada, France, the UK, Australia, and China. And this, in spite of the meltdown.  Mostly, I think because, when you engage with literature on a platform of this kind, you start reading and think why the world is what it is. And such a platform is rare because we are a very democratic festival. We don’t have green rooms where you tuck away authors. If somebody doesn’t want to interact, he/she goes back to the hotel. But mostly, everybody sits around. So, I don’t think there are any other festivals of this kind. You have to pay to attend the Galle (Sri Lanka) and Edinburgh (UK) festivals. I’ m not saying paying is a bad thing. In a sense, it’s a good thing because you’re dependence on sponsorships reduces to some extent. But I think in India, where you’re looking to making it accessible to different kinds of audiences – and we really have different audiences – such as local people and young people who, otherwise perhaps, would not come. And our philosophy is: catch them young. If they start reading, they’ll start thinking, if they start thinking, maybe you’ll have less violence!

Last year, you had Aamir Khan in attendance and this year, you had Amitabh Bachchan at the festival. Do you really think you need movie stars when there well-known authors in attendance?

Not at all. Stars are really accidental in a sense and, most of the times, not necessarily programmed by us.  Osian’s, who are our presenting sponsors, were bringing out a book on Amitabh Bachchan (Bachchanalia) and, therefore, wanted Amitabh Bachchan to come. It wasn’t a strategic thing to invite Amitabh Bachchan to draw crowds. Yes, if we get Amitabh Bachchan we will get crowds – but of a different kind.  Maybe some of them will be interested in literature. But, on the other hand, we have Nandita Das, discussing her movie Firaaq.  Vikas Swarup will be discussing Slumdog Millionaire and his novel Q&A and Deepti Naval will be reading some of her poetry. So, it’s really about creating the widest possible access to the widest possible audience base.  So if an audience is interested in Amitabh Bachchan and his book, for us literature, so why not? Similarly, if somebody is interested in Deepti Naval’s poetry, why not? At the end of the day, even film comes from the written word – you need a script and therefore you get a film. We even have food writing at the festival; Manju Malhi, who hails from England, writes about Indo-Brit cuisine. It’s ,again, very much part of what we think is literature.

 Your community on Facebook suggests that you target a lot of Delhi University students. Is that a conscious attempt?

Yes. This year, we have issued 67 bursaries to students across the country. These have gone through the British Council, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jadavpur University among others.  We are keen to bring young people together.  We are keen to make this festival, a festival of young energy.

Your festival features a lot of high profile authors such as Mohammed Hanif, Chetan Bhagat, Shashi Tharoor. Do you think this is an appropriate forum for aspiring writers?

Yes, I think so. There are a lot of people here who have not necessarily done a lot of writing. The criteria we keep in mind is- Is the book interesting? Is the author interesting? Is the issue that the book and the author are addressing, interesting? Does it fit into the broad themes (oral traditions, war on terror, travel etc.) that we’ve got?

You mentioned War on Terror and it struck me that, in the original schedule, Ahmed Rashid was supposed to be at the festival. But now he’s not. What happened there?

He said that he personally had an issue about coming right now.  He had some family commitments that came up last-minute.  We were very keen to get Ahmed here because of his new book (Descent into Chaos) which was a reflection of the incredible times we live in.  But, maybe, next year.

So this year it was 167 authors. What can one expect next year?

Not more than 60-70 authors. We’ve already got acceptances from Orhan Pahmuk, Zadie Smith, Neil Ferguson and Kiran Desai. We’re looking to get J.K Rowling and Strobe Talbott.  But not as many as this time. It’s expensive.

Lastly, why Diggi Palace of all places?

It represents a little bit of Jaipur. It has romance, architecture, passion. It’s got three wonderful places where we can host reading sessions (Durbar Hall, Baithak and Mughal Tent). It’s exotic in a sense. And it’s really a platform; within one space, it captures everything that we want to do without making necessarily overpowering.  There are other wonderful venues which could be daunting, but this has got a very democratic feel, in spite of it being a haveli.

More about the Diggi Palace here