The Jaipur Literary Festival is an Initiative of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation founded by Faith Singh, originally as a segment of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival in 2006. The 2006 inaugural festival had 18 writers including Hari Kunzru, William Dalrymple, Shobhaa De, Namita Gokhale and 14 others. It drew a crowd of about 100 attendees, including some who ‘appeared to be tourists who had simply got lost’, according to the event’s co-director William Dalrymple. By 2008, it had had developed into a free-standing festival of literature, with Sanjoy Roy of Teamwork Arts managing it. The 2008 fest drew 60 international and Indian writers and had 7000 visitors. Book Link talks to Sanjoy Roy who has crafted this iconic made-in-India event.

Nearly 1.3 million footfall and FREE. When you took up the challenge of hosting a litfest in a small Tier II city in 2006, did you ever vaguely imagine it would achieve the popularity it has?

None whatsoever. All we knew is that we wished to create a literature programme outside of the confines of IIC and IHC which was more experiential in nature. The year-on-year growth has been phenomenal. But what’s even more heartening is both the demographic (61% are between the ages of 15 – 25) and the economic slew … a group from a village 40 km from Gorakhpur who have set up a book club, a man and boy who sleep on the street, etc.

Ten years later you not only have a brand, you have three-four litfests across the world... and JLF is supposed to be the only event of its kind in South East Asia. Can we call it one of the most successful social enterprises in the decade? Going by 2015, there was 40% increase in student attendance.

Harvard Business school teaches a case study on the festival which has been very popular year on year as a way to grow a brand in such a short period of time. It has grown to become the largest literature festival in the world in terms of the sheer number of people that throng our venues (21,000 per hour and our largest venue hosts 6,500 people).

Our primary intent was to make this into a city event and ensure that everyone felt it was their festival. We managed to do this and it was hard work. In the initial years, we had to break the stereotype image that this was a `white’ persons’ or elite peoples’ festival. Today everyone from the local rickshaw puller to the shop keepers in Johri Bazaar feel involved and even if they don’t come to the programme, all of them are vested in its success.

Your debates over the decade have brought the ‘process of thinking’ centerstage and made it accessible to the common man ... can we say, JLF sets the trend for the coming discourse in this part of the world?

For better or worse, we tend to make every effort to ensure there is depth in our conversations, debates and discussions and a representation of all kinds of voices and points of view.

Are controversies necessary for success?

Authors don’t necessarily write to entertain. Authors write as they have a volition to write. They provide an insight into the future, a perspective of a world that we may not be familiar with, a reflection of society and its travails. It is this aspect that makes literature and philosophy political. India is a land of a billion ideas and points of view. Politics and political thought is part of our mainstream and allows for sustained, healthy debate and a vibrant, noisy democracy.

How do you see JLF positioned in the next five years?

We will continue to strengthen our extension festivals in London, Boulder and introduce Melbourne as a pop of festival next year. We will fight to hold on to our key USP of providing a space for free and frank debate which is reflective of all points of view. The freedom to dream and speech is fundamental to the festival.

The Jaipur Literature Festival authorities have announced that its 10th edition will take place from 19th – 23rd January 2017, once again at its beautiful home of the historic Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur.

Jaipur BookMark: The B2B arm of the Jaipur Literature Festival opens proceedings at Diggi Palace a day ahead on 18th January, placing industry networking and professional development at the heart of the action. 2017 marks ten years of the JLF and its meteoric rise from a small gem of an idea in 2006 to the world’s largest free literary festival, having hosted more than 1,300 speakers and attracting more than 1.2 million footfalls over the past decade. Frequently described as ‘the greatest literary show on Earth’, JLF will welcome over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular culture icons and expects audience numbers to surpass 2016’s figure of 330,000.

JLF 10@10: The theme in 2017 will be The Freedom to Dream: India at 70. As a pioneering champion of literary debate and social dialogue, both Indian and international, a strong focus of JLF 2017 will be to celebrate one of the world’s largest democracies through the theme and drive conversations around modern India in the context of its history and its future.General Registration: Online registration has opened and is free to all. There will continue to be an on the spot fee for those who do not register in advance.