Oxford Bookstores announces Bengali Literary festival

Created in association with PatraBharati, the festival will be attended by eminent authors, renowned film directors, poets and musicians covering all the facets of Bangla literature.

 

Priti Paul, Director Apeejay Surrendra Group said, “To honour the rich literary tradition of the Bangla language, to make it increasingly visible and accessible, and to build an audience for Bangla books and reading has inspired me to create the Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob. The Utsob is a prized initiative of Oxford Bookstores which provides a prominent platform to showcase voices of Contemporary Bangla literature on the local and national stage.  The inauguration of the Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob as Bengal gears up to celebrate the homecoming of Goddess Durga, makes it a truly special offering to our City of Books. I invite all Kolkatans to spend October 10th at Oxford Bookstore Park Street amidst debate, poetry, discussion, celebration in the company of the brightest minds from West Bengal and Bangladesh being brought together.”

 

 

Eminent authors Shirshendu Mukherjee, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Samaresh Majumdar, Sankha Ghosh, Imdadul Haq Milon, Bani Basu, Pracheta Gupta, Ranjan Bandhopadhyay, Prafulla Ray, Sanjib Chatterjee, Srijato and Subodh Sarkar amongst others, renowned film Directors like Goutam Ghose, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Mainak Bhaumik and popular Bengali musicians Nachiketa, Surojit Chatterjee and Kalika Prasad will be participating in the festival. 

 

Swagat Sengupta, Director, Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob said, “Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob is pioneering in its ideation and conceptualization. We have carefully curated a full day Utsob, covering all the facets of Bangla literature, where our literature is headed, the differences between epar and opar literary expression & writings, the impact of Bangla literature on films, how it has evolved over centuries and the rich and important role Kobita has played in Bangla literature. Eminent voices speaking on all these issues of importance are being brought together on one platform for a whole day and will interact with audiences at our heritage store in Kolkata where the Oxford Bookstore story started nearly a 100 years ago and is a must attend for everyone."

 

Tridib Kumar Chattopadhyay, Managing Director, PatraBharati Group of Publications said on the occasion, “Kolkata is considered as the cultural capital of India. It is the home of the intellectuals, authors, readers, poets and critics. The biggest evidence is the International Kolkata Book Fair where over 20 lakhs Kolkatans visit over a period of 12 days to buy books and celebrate Literature in the purest form. Kolkata also hosts several International Literature Festivals. But Kolkata being the hub of Bengali Literature has never recognized its own regional literature truly and there has not been a prominent platform to showcase the works of the eminent authors, poets and celebrities. To fill the void and establish a platform, Kolkata’s oldest bookstore, Oxford Bookstore have organized the Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob 2015 in association with PatraBharati. We look forward to making this event a success through the joint efforts and contribution of our eminent panelists and guests."

 

Present for the announcement was eminent author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, who shared his excitement over the promising potential and opportunities that a celebration of diverse themes across books, theatre, dance, and music that Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob would make possible.