Kitab Festival
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Kitab Festival is the Indian subcontinent's/India's leading annual festival of literature, media, ideas and UK-Indian relations.
The festival attracts renowned international figures and a great buzz across India. The first Kitab was a huge success in New Delhi, held in April 2006. The second Kitab will take place in Mumbai from 23-26 February 2007. The Times newspaper is the British media partner.
Kitab aims to connect India with some of the most fascinating and talented British and international figures of literature, media, politics and the arts. The focus continues to be on British-Indian relations but the festival has broadened the programming by adding international themes and diverse subjects. Kitab has created a stimulating environment where new ideas can flourish and stimulating topics can be discussed and debated. A great number of Indian and British actors, publishers, politicians, journalists, foreign policy experts, authors and media figures will take part in Kitab 2007.
In 2006, Kitab speakers included Goldie Hawn, Oscar winning star to leading UK political figure Clare Short MP and top diplomat Shashi Tharoor, the UN Under-Secretary General for Communication amongst many others.
The Kitab 2007 list of speakers is diverse and equally rich with Germaine Greer, Kiran Desai, Hanif Kureishi, Sharmila Tagore, Julie Myerson, Rupert Everett - to name but a few guests. Kitab will also bring a British media delegation consisting of top editors and UK national newspaper journalists.
The Hindustan Times in India was the title sponsor in 2006 and Sunil Mittal's Airtel was the associate sponsor.
[edit] Organisation
Pablo Ganguli is the founder of Kitab. The Kitab Board comprise of several eminent personalities from Britain and India:
Peter Florence, director of the Guardian Hay Festival
Shashi Tharoor, UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and author
Alexandra Pringle, editor in chief of Bloomsbury
Amit Chaudhuri, author (President)
William Dalrymple, author
Geordie Greig, editor of Tatler
Malavika Sanghhvi, journalist
Vikram Chandra, author
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, author
Tarun Tejpal, journalist
Dilip Cherian, public relations guru
Ian Jack, editor of Granta
Kavita Bhanot, Kitab Festival Director, India
