The Dehradun literature festival began on Friday in the presence of many noted authors and professionals from the creative fields.
The festival is based on the theme 'literature and Cinema'. Entitled "Doon litFest 2013", the three-day event will have panel discussions, workshops, book launches and readings, debates, and cultural programmes.
Festival producer Namit said that the main aim behind this event is to share a good platform with the people who are involved in academics.
He also said that various film personalities such as writers, lyricists and directors have been invited to the event. Dehradun is an educational hub, but no such programme was organised here before.
local authors, poets and writers are participating in the fest, he added.
On the inaugural day, panel discussions on different topics including 'Death of verse in cinema and literature, 'Echo of local voices' and 'literature and cinema- chronicling the past, reflecting the present, foretelling the future' were held with noted panelists participating.
An individual and team debate competition for students between 15-19 years was conducted on the topic 'How come Hindi films are the opiate of the masses but Hindi literature is notIJ' Along with this a workshop was also organised on short story writing by author and documentary filmmaker Anubha Yadav.
Around 40 students from different schools and colleges like Doon University, Doon School, Scholars Home, Institute of Management Studies (IMS) and Gurukul Youth Development Society (GYDS) participated in the debate and workshop.
The first day of the fest ended with a performance by Jasleen Kaur Royal of India's Got Talent fame and MTV-VMA winner, 2013.
Famous personalities like director of English Vinglish, Gauri Shinde, lyricist Kausar Munir, director of Dostana, Tarun Mansukhani, author and ex-editor of Femina, Sathya Saran, managing editor of Harper Collins, Shantanu Chaudhuri, IAS officer and presently Principal Secretary, department of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Archaeology and Museums Vijai Vardhan, author and senior journalist Jaskiran Chopra and others were also present on the first day of the fest.
The programmes slated for Saturday include debate on topic 'eBooks are killing books', panel discussions on 'The editor's perspective', 'Can cinema and literature bring about social changeIJ' and 'Cinema and books as windows to the world of small towns', workshop on creative writing, audience interaction on screenplay writing and a play Ten Years with Guru Dutt written and directed by Saattvic will be organised in the festival.