Source : Business Standard
Former President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the three-day Kolkata Literature Festival beginning on February 7 at the ongoing International Kolkata Book Fair ground.
Mukherjee will inaugurate the 2019 Kolkata Literature Festival, which will be having 66 guests from 10 countries including India, general secretary of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, organisers of the book fair, Tridib Chatterjee told a press meet here Tuesday.
“He (Mukherjee) is the pride of Bengal … and we are proud he will be inaugurating the Kolkata Literature Festival few days after being conferred with the Bharat Ratna,” he said.
The inauguration ceremony will also be attended by Jnanpith recipient Bengali poet Sankha Ghosh and eminent Bengali writer Samaresh Majumder as the literary meet will have special thrust on Bengali literature, Chatterjee said.
Wishing all the best to the literary meet, eminent Scottish publicist Jenny Brown said at the press meet “Our ties with this city and its book loving people run deep. We plan to bring new voices in literature from Bengal to Scotland, … mooting literary exchanges between the two countries.”
Kolkata Literature Festival, Curator Esha Chatterjee said 24 sessions will be held during the three-day literary meet covering literature, contemporary issues and different areas of art.
As part of the festival’s initiative to celebrate 50 years of Satyajit Ray’s timeless fantasy film ‘Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayan’, Bollywood actor-director Tinnu Anand will attend one session on February 8 where Ray’s director son Sandip Ray will be present.
“Anand will share his experiences to assist Ray during the making of Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne and how this changed his life’s course and shaped him,” Chatterjee said.