It’s soon going to be that time of year again. Come November, the city will play host to the most anticipated annual literary festival, Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2017. The festival will be held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on all four days and simultaneously at Prithvi Theatre on 17th November to 19th November.
Over 120 celebrated writers and thinkers from over 14 countries will participate in the festival, making this one of India’s most important and truly international literature events.
Day 1: 16th November at NCPA
Name: “You Gave Us Cricket, We Gave You Curry. Who Got The Better Deal?”
Highlights: Oxford historian, Peter Frankopan, and LitFest favourite, Shashi Tharoor, in an intellectual slugfest on who got the better deal from the British Empire.
Venue: NCPA- Tata Theatre
Time: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Name: The Silk Route
Highlights: Oxford historian Peter Frankopan looks at world history from a completely different perspective: the world`s centre not being Europe, but Persia.
Venue: NCPA- Experimental Theatre
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Name: Debate: We Are Living In A Nanny State
Highlights: Shashi Tharoor; Paranjape who is a professor at JNU; Mitra, Editor of ‘The Pioneer’ and Alagh, former CEO of Britannia, debate the question. Expect fireworks of the intellectual kind.
Venue: NCPA- Tata Theatre
Time: 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Name: The Dubliners Dilemma
Highlights: An Irish play about the publisher who rejected James Joyce.
Venue: NCPA - Godrej Theatre
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Day 2: 17th November at NCPA
Name: Thank You For Being Late
Highlights: A straight talk by Thomas Friedman (recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes) on demystifying the Age of Acceleration.
Venue: NCPA - Experimental Theatre
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Name: Launch Of Talking Films
Highlights: Launch of Javed Akhtar’s Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema followed by the author and Shabana Azmi in conversation with Kausar Munir.
Venue: NCPA - Experimental Theatre
Time: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Name: 100 Years Of Indian Sport Through Artefacts
Highlights: A straight talk by Boria Majumdar (leading Indian sports scholar) followed by a conversation with N Ram (Chairman and former Editor-in- Chief of The Hindu Group of Newspapers).
Venue: NCPA - Little Theatre
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Name: Boom Country
Highlights: The new wave of Indian entrepreneurs. Alan Rosling (entrepreneur and strategic advisor with a deep engagement with India), Mukund Rajan (Chief Ethics Officer of the Tata group), Thomas Friedman (internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist—the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes). Chair: Sid Khanna
Venue: NCPA - Experimental Theatre
Time: 10:30 am - 11:30 am
Name: X&Y
Highlights: A unique play from the UK about mathematics, theatre and friendship.
Venue: NCPA - Tata Theatre
Time: 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Day 3 : 18th November at NCPA and Prithvi
Name: The Big Fellow
Highlights: A funny and powerful play about Ireland’s greatest freedom fighter.
Venue: Prithvi Theatre
Time: 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Name: There’s Nothing Funny About Writing Humour
Highlights: Gary Shtyengart (author and recipient of Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize) in conversation with Aditi Mittal (Indian standup comedian).
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Venue: Prithvi Theatre
Name: You Cheeky Devil
Highlights: Chandrahas Choudhury (Author and Commonwealth First Book Award nominee), Mahesh Rao (Recepient of Tata First Book Award), Prayaag Akbar (Author and former editor of Scroll), Siddharth Dasgupta (poet and novelist) at a literary quiz with a twist
Venue: Prithvi Theatre
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Name: X&Y
Highlights: A unique play from the UK about mathematics, theatre and friendship.
Venue: Prithvi Theatre
Time: 9:00 pm - 10:30 pm
Day 4 : 19th November at NCPA and Prithvi
Name: The God Argument
Venue: NCPA - Godrej Theatre
Highlights: A straight talk by AC Grayling (Author, professor and judge of the Booker Prize).
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Name: What We Cannot Know
Highlights: A straight talk by Marcus du Sautoy (Author and A Fellow of The Royal Society, the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of New College.)
Venue: NCPA - Experimental Theatre
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Name: No Means No
Highlights: Catherine Mackinnon (American radical feminist and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan), Vrinda Grover (lawyer and human rights activist) Chair: Kalpana Sharma (independent journalist and columnist) talk about the legalities of sexual harassment
Venue: NCPA - Experimental Theatre
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Highlights: Makarand Paranjape (Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University), Mark Kurlansky (playwright and foreign correspondent for The International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer), Shimon Lev (writer, researcher in Indian and Jewish studies, artist and curator).
Venue: NCPA - Godrej Theatre
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Name: Master On Masters
Highlights: Performance by Amjad Ali Khan (Grammy nominated Indian musician) along with a conversation with Anil Dharker (Writer and Tata Litlive Festival Director).
Venue: NCPA - Tata Theatre
Time: 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Name: Finding My Voice
Venue: Prithvi Theatre
Highlights: A straight talk by Nell Leyshon (award winning playwright and novelist).
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Name: The Dubliners Dilemma
Highlights: An Irish play about the publisher who rejected James Joyce.
Venue: Prithvi Theatre
Time: 9:00 pm - 10:30 pm