Shri Farooq Sheikh, eminent actor in a session on The Act of Reading interacted with the audience at the Theme Pavilion where he shared his perceptions about books, reading and cinema. The moderator of the session was Shri Avinash Pandey, Executive Vice President, Star TV.
To familiarize people, particularly young, with works of legendary film-makers like Satyajit Ray, Shri Sheikh said, books on their works should also be written. Talking about the advancement in technology, he said that there is no harm with it, if children use internet to search for good content and information. He was happy to note that books on cinema in many Indian languages like Malayalam, Marathi etc are also now available. He said that literature is mirror to society and we should make it more interesting to attract young people towards reading habit. At the end of the session, he said “NBT should consider bringing classic books in regional languages on cinema every year at affordable prices.”
An audio-video presentation on Style and Techniques of Adaptations was also given by Shri Santosh Pathare, young film critic, at the Theme Pavilion. He opined that there is always likelihood of transformations in adaptations and it is not possible to present the literature in similar manner. He said that literature and cinema are two different entities and cannot be compared. He said that a film-maker presents adaptations in his own style. It is necessary to give a new look to a film as an author’s expressions are limited to words only while a film-maker can express his views without a dialogue in a movie.
Shri Rajat Barjatya, CEO of Rajshree Media, a sister concern of Rajshree Productions gave a talk on the literary influences of their major films like Uphaar, Nadiya Ke Paar, Hum Apke Hai Kaun etc at the Theme Pavilion. He also gave an audio-visual presentation on their efforts to bring films and other content through new media like internet, mobiles, i-pads etc and interacted with the audience.
Under the section Literature that Walks, Talks and Sings, the Asamiya movie Halodhiya Choraye Baodhan Khai with English sub-titles was screen played. The movie is based on a novel by Shri Homen Borgohain which shows the plight of farmers who are exploited by the landlords.
At the 20th New Delhi Book Fair, book lovers will be amazed to see the fusion of history, lifestyle and culture through the world of books in several Indian as well as foreign languages. Hall no. 11 is dedicated to Hindi books while Hall No. 10 is exhibiting books in Indian languages like Asamiya, bangle, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Sanskrit among others. The English books are being exhibited at Hall no. 1 while Hall no. 7 is exhibiting books of exhibitors from countries like Spain, Germany, France, Pakistan, UK etc.
Considering the fact that translation is a means through which we can read the literature of various languages across the world, a two-day national seminar on Indian Literature or Tower of Babel: Cross Translation among Indian Languages is being organized by NBT in association with the Department of Modern Indian languages and Literary Studies, University of Delhi. Inaugurating the seminar, Dr Sudhis Pachauri, eminent writer and critic said that “more than ever we need more translators and translations.” In his keynote address, Prof. Satchidanandan, eminent poet, critic and former secretary, Sahitya Akademi said, “An idea of literature is inescapably linked to the idea of translation as the former cannot come into being in the absence of translations.” In his address he looked at some of the challenges faced by interlanguage translation in India.
At the Children’s Pavilion many programmes for children are being organized. At a workshop, children learnt the processes involved for reporting an event. In a programme organized by AWIC, children interacted with authors. An interaction between authors and publishers’ of children’s books was also organized by All About Publishing at the pavilion. National Centre for Children’s Literature, a wing of NBT is exhibiting more than 1200 books in Hindi and other Indian languages published since the year 2006 at the pavilion. At Lal Chowk, a puppet show by Shri Puran Bhatt and popular Sufi music was presented by the Music Band.
