Cinema meets literature as Delhi celebrates 100 yrs

The 20th World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan starting Saturday will focus on 100 years of Indian cinema and 100 years of Delhi as well. The 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore will also be celebrated.

The nine-day fair will also feature a an exhibition ‘Point of View: 100 Years of Indian Cinema’. The event will try to create a link between literature and cinema.
At least 1,300 publishing professionals from across the world will participate, and 2,500 stalls will be set up.

M A Sikander, director of National Book Trust, which has organised the event, said, “The theme will be the unique relationship of cinema and literature. There will be some book launch and workshops as well.”

Hosted under the aegis of the Union human resource development ministry, the fair will be inaugurated by Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal. The opening ceremony will be presided over by Manoj Das, professor of Sri Aurobindo University in Pondicherry, and Mridula Mukherjee, professor of Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The fair will host at least 30 foreign publishers and delegations from Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Germany, UAE, China, France, Iran and Britain. There will be separate enclosure for different genres of books.

“We have invited 1,000 children from 30 schools and hired student volunteers from Delhi University, who will guide children at the fair,” said Sikander.

A special catalogue of 300 books collected from various archives will be on sale.
Sibal will release three Braille books on cinema. Also, two special volumes on the ‘art of acting’ and ‘influence of Urdu on Hindi movies’ will be released on February 29.
There will be discussions on literature and cinema addressed by academics and filmmakers who are associated with adapting Indian literature into cinema.

A special pavilion will commemorate 100 years of Delhi as India’s capital.
“One of the business highlights of the fair is the ‘right’s table’ for international trade negotiations. This forum will be used to exchange copyrights of books. It will be supported by the German Book Office and the French government,” said Sikander.
The event will also take up the issue of pricing of books.