The Jaipur
Literature Festival began in 2006 and it flourished. But it was a
mere beginning. Many other literature festivals followed in other
cities. Authors and publishers started meeting at these platforms.
But now, book lovers, authors, publishers and others will have a
chance to view a television show dedicated to books. Don't
make any false guesses. None of the channels you imagined will
telecast this show. Rather it is country's first channel—Doordarshan
will telecast the show on books.
The
show will be called 'Kitaabnama: Books and
Beyond'. According
to
The
Times of India, it
is
Doordarshan's latest attempt in advocating literature and literary
issues through dialogue and conversation.
But
the person who has brought this show to the small screen is writer
and literary activist Namita Gokhale. She admits to the newspaper
that she had the idea of a TV show on books for about quite some
time. She expresses gratitude to the Doordarshan team which accepted
the idea of a book-based show. Thus, the show will essentially
showcase the multilingual diversity of Indian literature. In
addition, it will bring to the forefront encounters with writers of
different Indian languages, books and reading sessions, as well as
guest appearances from international names and voices.
The
first episode of Kitaabnama: Books and Beyond was telecast on August
25, 2013 on DD National. It
featured a
discussion on the celebrated Urdu and Hindi playwright, poet and
actor, Habib Tanvir, which was in turn followed by a chat
between Namita Gokhale and author Kunzang Choden who
happens to be the first Bhutanese woman writer to write a novel in
English.
The show
sounds like a good beginning and might bring about life to the book
world in India. We wish all the best to the Doordarshan team as well
as Namita Gokhale who endeavoured to turn her idea into a show.
Comments
Post a Comment