Bhubaneswar: The 7th edition of the Odisha Literary Festival (OLF), a literary event, will begin on Saturday evening.
Governor Ganeshi Lal is expected to inaugurate the two-day event. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be the chief guest on Sunday. Dharmendra Pradhan will also be present on the closing day.
Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid will open the session with a discussion on ‘Why does religion matter so much’. He will joined by former Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra, Rakesh Sinha and journalist-author Ashutosh.
Apart from literary discussions, there will be cultural programmes. Odissi dancer Aruna Mohanty will present an innovative dance choreography titled ‘Pratinayak’ on Saturday evening. She will perform solo at the festival.
Author Ashwin Sanghi will hold a special session on Sunday for students titled, ‘Connecting the dots: Myth history and science’. It will be followed by MP Feroze Varun Gandhi speaking on ‘Media, Society and Culture – Inter-relation and emerging trends’.
Rajya Sabha member Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, linguist Debi Prasanna Patnaik, academic and writer Jatin Nayak and founder of Odia Wiki Subhashish Panigrahi will hold a discussion on if ‘Technology can rekindle interest in Odia writing’.
Authors and journalists Avalok Langer, Kota Neelima and Neyaz Farooquee will take part in the session ‘Embracing the Other: Can the written word help?’ that will be moderated by Sujit Mahapatra.
The other session ‘Women on Women: Are they the Best Fit?’ will have noted writers Devapria Roy, Ira Mukhoty and Manjima Bhattacharjya along with author and senior political commentator Ravi Shankar Etteth conversing on handling of women characters by male or female writers.
While independent singer-songwriter Kavish Seth will present a unique platter of Hindustani song and poetry ‘Meri zubaan desi hai’, the cast and crew of upcoming movie ‘Kaashi in search of Ganga’, including Bollywood star Sharman Joshi, director Dhiraj Kumar and producer Manish Kishore will be special attractions. They will also deliberate on ‘Changing subjects and scripts of Indian cinema’ with noted film critic Piyush Roy.
The festival is being organised by The New Indian Express.