JLF 2021: Virtual Jaipur Literature Fest's author book gets fatter

It has been described as the “Kumbh Mela of Literature”. Unlike the Kumbh, however, the 14th edition of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) is opening today in an online avatar.

On from February 19 to 28, it is expected to bring the most talked about books, literary themes and authors of 2020 directly to audiences across the world in the comfort of their living rooms. The pandemic may have compelled producer Sanjoy Roy of Teamwork Arts and JLF co-directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple to change its winning formula that has in the past relied as much on its literary stars as it has on Pink City Jaipur’s reliably exotic sights, sounds and experiences, but they feel this could become the new normal.

Their biggest challenge has been to replicate the heady energy of Diggi Palace, venue of previous editions of JLF, virtually. This time round, the JLF microsite opens into a 3D version of the palace. “As they’ve done in previous years, this time, too, visitors will be able to enter and choose which venue they would like to proceed to,” Roy says. Once they enter, the sheer diversity of speakers, authors and panels available to them is huge.

Says Dalrymple about the lineup of events, “This is one of our very strongest yet and we still have some literary superstar surprises to reveal.”

Here’s a sampler: 2020 Booker Prize finalist Avni Doshi will explore the nuanced complexities of a mother-daughter relationship in her book Burnt Sugar; Sonia Faleiro will discuss the killing of two young girls in Uttar Pradesh that she has researched for The Good Girls; crowd-pleaser Priyanka Chopra will talk about her memoir Unfinished; and festival favourite Shashi Tharoor will return with his latest book, The Battle of Belonging.

Roy says that their impressive international lineup has been made possible only by the festival’s virtual format. “We’d been trying to get public policy analyst and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz for the last five years but he couldn’t make it because of his teaching commitments,” he says. “Malala may not have found it easy to get a visa to India. We’ve even got Noam Chomsky, who’s now 92.”

JLF 2021 Snapshot

• From February 19 to 28
• No of speakers & performers: over 300
• Languages represented: 25 Indian; 18 international
• Nationalities: 23
• International participants: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; American economist, public policy analyst and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz; Pakistani activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai; Man Booker Prize-winner Douglas Stuart; journalist and Pulitzer awardee Jeffrey Gettleman, to name some
• Indian participants: Ramchandra Guha, Sonia Faleiro, sculptor Anish Kapoor, Carnatic music doyen T M Krishna, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Karan Thapar, & others

 

Other international speakers include last year’s Booker-winner Douglas Stuart, winner of the inaugural DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, novelist and rapper H M Naqvi, and acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín. “I’m excited at having Italian astrophysicist and writer Carlo Rovelli in conversation with Priyamvada Natarajan (professor of astronomy and physics),” says Gokhale. She’s also looking forward to Stuart speak of his award-winning debut novel as well as to T M Krishna’s musical rediscovery of emperor Ashoka’s edicts.

“We also wanted to recreate the touch feel of JLF with our book stores and bazaars,” says Roy. Both have been given an online avatar, as have the daily morning and evening music concerts that have added to the buzz of previous editions.

Sponsorship patterns have changed and not just because of the pandemic-induced downturn. “Where we used to raise Rs 100 earlier, we’ve managed to get barely Rs 7 today,” Roy says. “Sponsors, especially lifestyle brands, have been slow to take to the virtual medium.” Contrary to perception, hosting JLF virtually has been merely about 33 per cent cheaper compared to previous years, he adds. “We’ve invested in improving our technical infrastructure,” says Roy. “It was the only way to produce the 140 hours of quality programming that JLF has demanded.”

With interest, mainly from first-timers at JLF from across the globe (Germany accounts for the fourth highest number of registrations) as well as India, the team is excited about its hugely improved reach. “Our marketing team aims to engage with 10 million viewers this year, though I’d be satisfied with half,” Roy laughs. “We can’t dream of such numbers in Diggi House.”

How many viewers actually tune in to JLF 2021 remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Book aficionados can, even in the future, look forward to a more accessible, socially-distanced version of the literature festival.