Report: Hyderabad Literary Festival
The 15th edition of the event brought together personalities from the fields of cinema, literature and journalism.
What began in 2010 in Hyderabad as a three-day festival to celebrate 75 poets from different Indian languages has now become a vibrant confluence of literature, art, culture, science, and heritage. “HLF 2014 was sort of a turning point when an entire street in Banjara Hills was turned into a lit street with events spread across five cultural spaces. From then on HLF began to grow steadily in terms of its scope and its reach,” says founder-director T Vijay Kumar.
The 15th edition of Hyderabad literary festival held from 24 to 26 January 2025 and spread across Sattva Knowledge City and IT-Hub had Lithuania as the guest nation and Sindhi as the language in focus. Inaugurated by Jishnu Dev Sharma, the Governor of Telangana, Diana Mickevičienė, Lithuanian Ambassador to India, and Hindi cinema actor Shabana Azmi, the event featured more than 200 speakers, numerous events including ones featuring panels on indigenous and endangered Languages and climate change, workshops, a pop-up bookstore, and an unlimited supply of Irani chai and Osmania biscuit at the food court.
The festival brought together stalwarts of cinema, literature and journalism under the warm yellow and blue canopies that have now become representative colours of the festival. Among the participants were Ajit Mohanty, Sunitha Krishnan, Manoranjan Byapari, Rita Kothari, Rajdeep Sardesai, Anju Makhija, Neelesh Misra, Saaz Agarwal, Subhadra Anand, Savie Karnel, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, Yuvan Aves, Bittu Sahgal, Pankaj Sekhsaria, MK Raina, Stephen Huyler, Aruna Roy, Rahul Bhatia and film stars Siddharth, Shabana Azmi, Amol Palekar and Huma Qureshi, and many others.
The festival began with a session celebrating Shabana Azmi’s 50 years in cinema featuring Azmi in conversation with Amita Desai. She shared anecdotes about her earliest play in school and spoke about being exposed to international films at film school, working with Shyam Benegal, and about the treatment of women in Bollywood.
Later in the day, Amol Palekar spoke of resisting censorship, collaborating with Sandhya Gokhale, and how their atheism makes them accountable for all their actions, which, in turn, makes them the artists that they are.
On the following day, Aruna Roy spoke about the politics of women, learning from the amalgamation of rural and urban lives, and resisting those who threaten citizens’ rights. Rajdeep Sardesai stated that the media had failed its citizens in the last decade and that, the current political climate is not the citizens’ fault. In the Ajay Gandhi Valedictory session on the 26th, Rajmohan Gandhi and Harsh Mander were in conversation with Kalpana Kannabiran. Mander recalled Republic Day celebrations at Shaheen Bagh in 2020 and the lack of outrage in the Bilkis Bano case, and emphasised the need for bandhutwa..
In an engaging session titled Sanskrit-Lithuanian: Exploring Etymological Connections, Diana Mickevičienė and Vytis Vidūnas who were in conversation with Sreenivas Reddy, read from Vidūnas’s Sanskrit-Lithuanian Etymological Dictionary which featured 108 words, a number inspired by the beads in a rosary. The readings were fun to listen to because of the familiarity of the sounds. Vidūnas mentioned that sometimes Lithuanians believe they don’t need translations in India unaware that Sanskrit isn’t a spoken language here. The session further discussed the hierarchies of languages: while upper castes are gatekeepers of Sanskrit in India, Lithuanian has remained archaic because it’s spoken only by farmers. It was intriguing to see how languages from opposite sides of the social spectrum and from very different places could share such similarities!
Many sessions were dedicated to the history, archaeology and scientific development of Hyderabad. Authors like Dinesh Sharma (Beyond Biryani: Making of a Globalised Hyderabad), Aparajith Ramnath (Engineering A Nation, a biography of M Visvesvaraya), and Moupia Basu (Bhagmati: Why Hyderabad’s Lost Queen Is the Soul of The City) shed light on the city’s past and present. The discussions also included authors like Usha Raman (Polite Conversations) and Jay Krishnan (Unfinished Business and Other Stories) whose fiction is based on reverse migration. Ruthvika Rao (The Fertile Earth) and Nishanth Injam (The Best Possible Experience), who set their stories in Telengana, shared their writing journeys.
Lawyer and author Gautam Bhatia and graphic novelist Appupen discussed their ideas of dystopia and city planning that goes into their fiction. An interesting session entitled Beyond Periods and Pregnancy for Women’s Health featuring gynaecologist Archana Satwalekar and Sapna Desai, public health practitioner and principal investigator for SAHELI (Study and Action on Hysterectomy) focussed on endometriosis, PCOS, hormone therapy after menopause, and demolished many myths that generally stop women from becoming active agents in choosing their health care.
One of the festival’s streams, Youngistan Nukkad hosted flash mobs, street plays and stage talks that incorporated various dance forms and songs from across India. At Kaavya Dhaara, The Little Theatre presented a beautiful tribute to Keki Daruwala, performing his poems along with Sridala Swami and Arundhati Subramaniam. The interludes included a stunning performance in Ibaadat: Exploring Communal Harmony and Gender Equality Through Kathak. Conceptualised by Barkha Parel and Tanveer Alam, this stunning performance showcased Radha’s pleas to Krishna, joy and grief in romance, and longing and surrender in love through the Lucknow and Jaipur schools of dance. It featured a ghazal by Mah Laqa Bai who was also a Kathak dancer from Hyderabad. Theatre group Adishakti performed Urmila, a thought-provoking play that depicted the titular character’s angst and her fight against sleep and patriarchy to have agency over her body. With minimal dialogue and engrossing music, the play was very well received. The djembe circle by Sai Kumar and Advaita, the fusion band, also took the crowd by storm.
On 26th January, the day began with Rishiraj Kulkarni playing the hand pan. This was followed by the unfurling of the national flag by Rajmohan Gandhi. The finale was an interactive performance of Ishq Hai! Ishq Hai! Ishq Hai! by the spoken word poet and performers Priya Malik and Tanmay Maheswari.
Every corner of the venue buzzed with activity throughout the three days. Art galleries showcased works by various artists, while drawing stations encouraged children and their guardians to create together. Workshops ranged from discussions on Telugu typography and writing science fiction to practical guides on reading and interpreting food labels. The flea market highlighted local art and handlooms, making for a wholesome cultural experience. Save the Rock society dedicated to spread awareness the rock structures in Hyderabad and Story Box, a portable ATM that dispenses literature based on the reader’s preference also made their yearly appearance.
Clearly committed to inclusivity, cultural engagement, and literary excellence, the Hyderabad Literary Festival is open to all. The event continues to provide a dynamic stage for the city’s creative forces while simultaneously integrating national and international discourses, and ensures that attendees leave thoroughly inspired.
Akankshya Abismruta is an independent writer.