Aditi Maheshwari

Aditi Maheshwari is the Executive Director of the Vani Prakashan Group, one of the foremost publishers of Hindi writing in India. She is a publishing industry analyst, author of white papers, columnist, public speaker, copyrights specialist, marketing professional, literature festival director, and book lover. Her work profile includes managing publishing lists and intellectual property; liaising with cultural offices at embassies and government bodies; and the commission, production, and promotion of books. As a third-generation publisher, she is passionate about taking forward her legacy in a modern avatar. 

Attending Session

December 10, 2023 ● 12.20 pm
Satya Vachan - Satya Vyas on being a game changer in contemporary Hindi writing. In conversation with Aditi Maheshwari Goyal

December 10, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Anuvad in a post-Booker international context - Jerry Pinto, Aditi Maheshwari Goyal, and Mamta Kalia discuss whether there is an international market for Hindi classics. In conversation with Vinoy Bhushan

Anubha Fatehpuria

An actor since 1995 and a practicing architect since 2001, Anubha Fatehpuria has received the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puruskar (2013-14), The Telegraph SHE Awards (2019), and the Shyamal Sen Smriti Puraskar (2007) for her theatre acting. She has worked with celebrated theatre directors like Habib Tanveer, Shyamanand Jalan, Usha Ganguli, Alyque Padamsee, Wlodzimierz Staniewski (Poland), Suman Mukhopadhyay, John Britton (UK), and many others. She received extensive theatre training from Late Shyamanand Jalan, and continues to learn the craft of acting and theatre-making under Vinay Sharma. Since 2002, she has been an actor with Padatik Theatre, Kolkata, and is currently Director (Programmes) there. She has also acted on screen collaborating with many well-known directors including Seema Pahwa, Prasoon Pandey, Aparna Sen, Shoojit Sircar, and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury.  

Attending Session

December 10, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
Kaagaz ke Gubbare - A play on the stories and essays of Ismat Chugtai directed by Anubha Fatehpuria

Ashutosh Chaturvedi

Ashutosh Chaturvedi, Prabhat Khabar’s Editor-in-Chief, has thirty years of journalistic experience. He began his career as a trainee journalist at Maya before moving on to India Today, the Sunday Observer, Dainik Jagran, and the BBC (three years in London and five years in Delhi). He was also a crucial component of the BBC Hindi website’s launch team. He played a major part in the growth of the Amar Ujala Group. He primarily writes on socio-political issues, and is passionate about nature and photography.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 12.40 pm
Sahitya ke saath safar - Mamta Kalia in conversation with Ashutosh Chaturvedi

Bikram Grewal

Bikram Grewal is an eminent ornithologist, best-selling author, birdwatcher, speaker, and conservationist who has written several guides on Indian birds and wildlife. He also has to his credit several photo-guides to the birds of the Indian subcontinent. He has been working with governments and private groups to promote eco-tourism in Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland. His 2002 book, Birds of India, has been a best-seller amongst Indian bird books. He has also been part of the Inheritance Series brought out by Sanctuary Asia.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Birdwoman of Doranda and Other Stories from the Wild - Raza Kazmi on the remarkable tale of Jamal Ara and other stories from Jharkhand’s jungles. In conversation with Bikram Grewal

Devdutt Pattanaik

Devdutt Pattanaik is one of India’s most celebrated mythologists and writers. He defines his work on mythology as cultural truths revealed through stories, symbols, and rituals. He lectures on the relevance of both Indian and Western myths in modern life. In the last twenty-five years, he has authored as well as illustrated over fifty books. He has incorporated the Mahabharata and the Ramayana into human resource management. He is a regular columnist for reputed newspapers like The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar. A medical doctor by training, he spent fifteen years working in the pharma and healthcare industry but, over the past decade, has been fully immersed in exploring mythology and sharing its wisdom with the world.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 11 am
Inauguration by Devdutt Pattanaik - followed by the launch of his book Bahubali: 63 Insights into Jainism

December 9, 2023 ● 11.30 am
Gita iss yug ke liye kyun mahatvapoorn hai - Devdutt Pattanaik speaks on the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita

Jerry Pinto

Jerry Pinto is a Mumbai-based poet, novelist, short story writer, translator, and journalist. He has a liberal arts as well as a law degree. For his 2006 book The Life and Times of an H-Bomb on the acclaimed dancer-actress Helen, he went on to receive the National Film Award for the Best Book on Cinema. His debut novel, Em and The Big Hoom, won him a plethora of honours including the Hindu Literary Prize, the Crossword Book Award, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for fiction, and the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 4 pm
The Education of Yuri - Jerry Pinto on the eternal charm of the Bildungsroman novel. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

December 10, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Anuvad in a post-Booker international context - Jerry Pinto, Aditi Maheshwari Goyal, and Mamta Kalia discuss whether there is an international market for Hindi classics. In conversation with Vinoy Bhushan

December 10, 2023 ● 4 pm
Kuch Kavitaein - Poetry readings by Swanand Kirkire, Jerry Pinto, and Parwati Tirkey

Mahadev Toppo

Eminent litterateur Mahadev Toppo was born in a Kurukh tribal family in Hulsi village of Ranchi district. He holds a Masters degree in Hindi Literature from Ranchi University and later also did a Film Appreciation course from the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. His works include a large number of essays, poetry, short stories, and commentaries published in various leading newspapers and magazines. He has written extensively on the Adivasi worldview and co-edited an anthology of tribal poetry from Jharkhand titled Kalam Ko Teer Hone Do. A panelist on several talk-shows and discussions, he has also acted in feature and short films. For his contributions to tribal literature and cinema, he was awarded the Birsa Munda Samman in 2015. On 6 September 2023, he was appointed a Board Member of the Center for Oral and Tribal Literature of the Sahitya Akademi.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Phir Ugana - Mahadev Toppo and Parwati Tirkey talk about the influence of Jan Jeevan and Adivasi Jeevan on their work

Mamta Kalia

Mamta Kalia is a revered author, teacher, and poet writing primarily in Hindi. In 2017, she won the Vyas Samman, one of India’s most prestigious literary awards, for her novel Dukkham Sukkham. She has published two books of poems in English and written over twenty novels, plays, short story collections in Hindi. She has taught at Delhi and Bombay Universities, and was also the principal of a degree college Allahabad until 2001. From 2003 to 2006, she was Director of Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad, Kolkata. Her short stories and poems have been translated into English, Marathi, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Her novel Daud has run into twenty-six editions and is still in demand. She has conducted creative workshops in Budapest and Birmingham, and visited Tokyo and Osaka Universities in Japan as a cultural delegate.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 12.40 pm
Sahitya ke saath safar - Mamta Kalia in conversation with Ashutosh Chaturvedi

December 10, 2023 ● 11.20 am
Raag Darbari: Pachpan saal ke baad - Celebrating 55 years of Shrilal Shukla’s classic with Mamta Kalia and Vinoy Bhushan. Gillian Wright will be joining the session online

December 10, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Anuvad in a post-Booker international context - Jerry Pinto, Aditi Maheshwari Goyal, and Mamta Kalia discuss whether there is an international market for Hindi classics. In conversation with Vinoy Bhushan

Niranjan Kumar Kujur

Niranjan Kumar Kujur graduated from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. He is a multi-lingual director who has made films in Kudukh, Santhali, Bengali, Hindi, and Mandarin Chinese. His film Edpa Kana (Going Home) won numerous awards including the National Film Award for Best Audiography (Non-feature) in 2016. The Netflix series Jamtara had him as a line producer for the Jamtara schedule. He has directed a number of digital ad films for brands like Dabur, ITC, and Springfit. His latest directorial short film Teere Bendho Na (Unanchored) was selected in competition at the 14th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
Wasseypur aur Mirzapur se bahar: Jharkhand, UP, aur Bihar iss stereotype se kaise nikal payenge? - Discussion with filmmakers Niranjan Kujur and Seral Murmu

Pankaj Mitra

Born in 1965 at Ranchi, Pankaj Mitra has been writing stories in Hindi for almost 25 years even though his mother tongue is Bangla. He has been educated at Bhagalpur and Vinoba Bhave University. He started writing in the 90’s and has, over the years, become one of the most reliable voices against consumerist culture and exploitation of the downtrodden Adivasis. Satire is his signature style. Published in almost all renowned literary magazines, he has six collections of stories to his credit including Achha Aadmi. A number of awards and laurels have been bestowed upon him such as the India Today Young Writers Award, Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award, Meera Smriti, Vanmali Katha, and Kathakram Samman. He works in Akashvani and is particularly interested in theatre and cinema.

Attending Session

December 10, 2023 ● 2.15 pm
Achchha Aadmi - Pankaj Mitra talks about his collection of stories Achcha Aadmi. In conversation with Rashmi Sharma

Parwati Tirkey

Parwati Tirkey, a young poet and story writer from Jharkhand, is also an Assistant Professor of Hindi at Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav College, Ranchi. Her stories Gidni and Singreeli have appeared in Vagarth magazine. Her poetry has been published on several online portals including Hindwi, Sadaneera, Indradhanush, Samkaleen Janmat, and Pragatisheel Huq, as well as in many magazines. Earlier this year, Rajkamal Prakashan brought out her first collection of poems, Phir Ugana. 

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Phir Ugana - Mahadev Toppo and Parwati Tirkey talk about the influence of Jan Jeevan and Adivasi Jeevan on their work

December 10, 2023 ● 4 pm
Kuch Kavitaein - Poetry readings by Swanand Kirkire, Jerry Pinto, and Parwati Tirkey

Prashant Pandita

Prashant Pandita was born in Kashmir and spent the first eighteen formative years of his life in Srinagar. An engineer by qualification, he calls himself an accidental writer juggling the corporate world. He is based in Thane, Mumbai. He has been blogging regularly and his debut work of fiction was published in 2022. A moving account of the friendship and trials of two young local boys, set against the backdrop of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley, the novel is deeply inspired by his own umbilical ties with his place of birth.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 2.15 pm
The Jehlum Boys - Prashant Pandita on his debut novel. In conversation with Shahana Chatterjee

Rashmi Sharma

Rashmi Sharma, a well-known Hindi writer, is known for her short stories and poems. She has authored five books including one short story collection (Band Kothari Ka Darwaza), one travelogue (Jharkhand to Ladakh), and three poetry collections (Nadi Ko Sochne Do, Man Hua Palash, and Waqt Ki Algani Par). She has receievd the Suraj Prakash Marwah Sahitya Ratna Award (2020), Shailpriya Memorial Award (2021), and Katha-Samved Best Story Award (2021). After a decade-long career in the field of journalism, she is presently a full-time creative writer.

Attending Session

December 10, 2023 ● 2.15 pm
Achchha Aadmi - Pankaj Mitra talks about his collection of stories Achcha Aadmi. In conversation with Rashmi Sharma

Raza Kazmi

Raza Kazmi is a conservationist, wildlife historian, storyteller and independent researcher. His fields of expertise include India’s wildlife and forest administration history, conservation policy, and conservation issues afflicting the insurgency-ridden east-central Indian landscape. His writings appear in national newspapers (like The Hindu and The Indian Express), online media houses (such as The Wire, FiftyTwo.in, and RoundGlass Sustain), as well as in various magazines and journals (including Frontline, Seminar, The India Forum, Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, and Sanctuary Asia). A recipient of the New India Foundation Fellowship for 2021, Raza Kazmi is currently writing a book tentatively titled To Whom Does the Forest Belong? The Fate of Green in the Land of Red.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Birdwoman of Doranda and Other Stories from the Wild - Raza Kazmi on the remarkable tale of Jamal Ara and other stories from Jharkhand’s jungles. In conversation with Bikram Grewal

Satya Vyas

Satya Vyas is a leading light among the present generation of novelists writing in Hindi and can be credited with reviving readership of Hindi literature. His books feature regularly on bestseller lists. He has been honored with the Dwarka Prasad Aggarwal Award, the Sankalp Award, and the Koyla Bharti Award. His popular novel Chaurasi was adapted into the acclaimed web series Grahan. His biography of the legendary film star Meena Kumari was widely discussed and celebrated. We will soon be able to see films and web series based on several of his other books like Banaras Talkies, Delhi Darbar, Baghi Ballia, Uff Kolkata, and 1931. Research writing is one of his strong suits and he also teaches content writing to young aspirants on various platforms.  

Attending Session

December 10, 2023 ● 12.20 pm
Satya Vachan - Satya Vyas on being a game changer in contemporary Hindi writing. In conversation with Aditi Maheshwari Goyal

Seral Murmu

Seral Murmu is a filmmaker from Ghatshila, Jharkhand. Trained in film direction and screenplay writing at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, his films attempt to highlight issues of various communities that have been at the receiving end of objectified portrayals in visual media. He has studied the impact of cinema on the cultural landscape of Santhals in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal. He has also analyzed how affordable digital technology has democratized filmmaking and affected forms of storytelling in cinema, thus enabling mass production and consumption of content. Seral is known for the films Rawaah (2018), Urus (2018), and Sondhayni (2019) which won the Best Short Film (fiction) at DMCS National Short Film Festival, Pune. Currently, he is working on two documentary films and a feature to be shot in February 2024.

Attending Session

December 9, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
Wasseypur aur Mirzapur se bahar: Jharkhand, UP, aur Bihar iss stereotype se kaise nikal payenge? - Discussion with filmmakers Niranjan Kujur and Seral Murmu

Shubha Mudgal

Born into a musically dedicated family, Shubha Mudgal has been trained by some of the finest musicians and musicologists in India. In addition to being a versatile and popular performer, Shubha Mudgal has also won recognition as a composer. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Padma Shri from the Government of India in the year 2000; the Gold Plaque Award for Special Achievement in Music at the 34th Chicago International Film Festival, 1998; and the Yash Bharati Samman from the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2015. She has been closely involved with several projects related to music education in India. She has taught a course on Hindustani Music with Aneesh Pradhan for the Performing Arts Department of the Ashoka University, India. She was invited by the Goa Institute of Management as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar for a period of two years from January 2022. Along with Aneesh Pradhan, she has established an online distribution platform for musicians specializing in diverse forms of Indian music through their website www.underscorerecords.com.

Attending Session

December 8, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
Aalam-e-Ishq - A concert by Shubha Mudgal celebrating love poetry from the Sufi-Bhakti traditions. Composed by Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan. She will be accompanied by Aneesh Pradhan (tabla), Sudhir Nayak (harmonium), and Siddharth Padiyar (dholak)

Swanand Kirkire

Swanand Kirkire is a renowned Indian lyricist, writer, playback singer, actor, and director. He has won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics twice for the songs Bande Me Tha Dum…Vande Mataram from Lage Raho Munna Bhai and then for Behti Hawa Sa Tha Woh from 3 Idiots. For the Marathi film Chumbak, he received the 66th National Film Award in the Best Supporting Actor category. A graduate of the National School of Drama, he has most recently been seen in the critically acclaimed film Three of Us.

Attending Session

December 10, 2023 ● 4 pm
Kuch Kavitaein - Poetry readings by Swanand Kirkire, Jerry Pinto, and Parwati Tirkey

December 10, 2023 ● 5 pm
Bawra Mann - Melodies by Swanand Kirkire

Vinoy Bhushan

Vinoy Bhushan is a well-known senior journalist who has dedicated most of his career to scientific dissemination under the aegis of the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology. He has worked with various publications in Hindi, English, Urdu, and Marathi advising them on science coverage. All India Radio has aired several of his science-related remarks. He takes a great interest in stimulating and expanding the scientific knowledge of students. He is the Features Editor of Prabhat Khabar.

Attending Session

December 10, 2023 ● 11.20 am
Raag Darbari: Pachpan saal ke baad - Celebrating 55 years of Shrilal Shukla’s classic with Mamta Kalia and Vinoy Bhushan. Gillian Wright will be joining the session online

December 10, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Anuvad in a post-Booker international context - Jerry Pinto, Aditi Maheshwari Goyal, and Mamta Kalia discuss whether there is an international market for Hindi classics. In conversation with Vinoy Bhushan