K'taka 'Lit Fest' aims to set a benchmark

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The day-long Karnataka Lit Fest is scheduled to be held on April 2 in the city. This was announced by Veerakaputra Srinivas, the founder of Veeraloka Books. Kannada book publisher Veeraloka Books and popular writer Jogi (Girish Rao Hatwar) have joined hands to put up the mega literary festival in Bengaluru which seeks to create a mass market for Kannada books.

“Kannada literature is popular and we have many celebrity writers. The idea of the Karnataka Lit Fest is to bring a personal connection between the writers and readers. We are looking at the participation of a large number of authors and fans,” Srinivas said.

The fest is a one-day event to be held at the Jnanajyothi Auditorium and will include seminars, lectures, discussions and other events. “Of course, there will be books. All major and small publishers will be part of the festival,” Srinivas said.

The fest will be inaugurated by well-known Tamil writer Perumal Murugan. Murugan's Tamil novel Pure, earlier this week, made it to the longlist for the International Booker Prize 2023, making him the first Tamil writer to achieve this feat.

Writers including Kum Veerabhadrappa, Prof SG Siddaramaiah, Dr Hs Venkatesh Murthy and Prathiba Nandakumar will be part of the fest. Sandalwood stars including Prakash Rai and Ramesh Aravind will also be part of the bibliophile event. To mark the event, ten new books will be released the same day. Mega event The Karnataka Lit Fest will not be a walk-in festival.

“We want to maintain the highest standards and decorum so we are registering all participants. A nominal fee of Rs 200 will be charged for the entry and will include lunch at the event. School and college students can register for a special pass at only Rs150. A special membership fee of Rs1,500 will include Rs1,000 worth of books that can be bought at the festival and dinner at a five-star hotel after the event. We expect the participation of around 2,000 people,” Srinivas further said.