The Doon valley ,which has been home to several well-known writers as well as film artistes, will finally have a literature festival of its own. For many years, people who are avid readers and have visited literature festivals in Jaipur, Kasauli, Mubai and other cities, have been waiting to see Doon’s literature Festival take shape.
Dehradun’s first ever literature festival will be held at the Pacific Mall, Jakhan, Rajpur Road from Nov 29 to December 1, 2013. Entitled “DoonlitFest 2013”, this event will feature panel discussions, workshops, book launches and readings, debates, and cultural programmes over the three days. The festival has been curated by REACH in collaboration with ROOTS & WINGS, New Delhi.
The theme of the festival is ‘literature and Cinema’. Accordingly, delegates from both literary and film circles will attend. A few of the film personalities who will attend include Govind Nihalani, director, ArdhSatya, Aakrosh, Tamas, Gauri Shinde, director, English Vinglish, Imtiaz Ali, director, Jab We Met, love AajKal, Rockstar, Kausar Munir, lyricist, Ishaqzaade,Tanuja Chandra, director, Dushman, Sur, screenplay, Zakhm, TarunMansukhani, director, Dostana, Rekha Nigam, scriptwriter, Parineeta, Sona Jain, director, For Real, etc.
And, some of the literary personalities include Advaita Kala, Almost Single, scriptwriter, Kahaani, Anuja Chauhan, The Zoya Factor, Those Pricey Thakur Girls, Anuradha Marwah, Idol love, Dirty Picture, Bulbul Sharma, Shaya Tales, The Perfect Woman, Ruby Bhatia, A Degree in Death, Sathya Saran, author, ex-editor, Femina and , Stephen Alter, Fantasies of a Bollywood love Thief..
The festival promises to be of great value for film buffs as well as the literati. Apart from attending the festival programmes and browsing the books that will be displayed and sold from the festival bookstall, they will be able to participate in two special debates that are being organized exclusively for 15-19 year-olds.
The motions for the two debates are:1.eBooks are killing books, and 2. Adapting a literary work to film kills it. The debates will be open to both individual and school team categories.