A source told Merinews: “Indian cinema has time and again taken literature as reference point or they have been influence by literature. Thus in order to acknowledge that, we have decided on this theme this year.”  They have also collected books on cinema to be presented in the event and all the exhibitors would also be bringing in their contribution in tune with the theme of the fair. For the inauguration ceremony, Farooq Sheikh, Deepti Naval and HRD minister Kapil Sibal are invited and they would open the ceremony.

While it a great opportunity for people to delve into literature and books of all kinds from 25 February to 4 March, it is also a great opportunity for the publishers and book dealers to further their business. Believed to be the biggest fair in all Afro-Asian countries, the source revealed that twenty six countries are participating in the fair, showcasing their literature and books. Spain, Malaysia, UK and Germany besides all the SAARC countries, are few names among others.

2500 stalls and 1350 participants would be contributing to the event and all the major publishers such as Rupa, Penguin, and Macmillan are participating. The source said that they are expecting 2 to 2.5 lakh footfalls every day and when asked about the approximate number of books to be sold, he said that as publishers do not divulge their sales figure, hence he cannot comment on that.

When asked that given the whole Jaipur Literary Festival and how the focus shifted from the festival to one person, whether this would have any effect on the festival, the source said a firm no. He continued, “The Jaipur people wanted controversy and so they created one but we do not believe in any such negative publicity and hence have not invited any such person. We want this festival to be a success and to be remembered for the quality of books that we presented.”

He also confirmed that there would be 90 book releases, that they know of and during the weekends the publishers would get together to discuss business. A Book Fair of this scale has to be compared to the biggest in the world that is the Frankfurt Book Fair. However, source didn’t see any connection and said, “both of them are not at all comparable as Frankfurt Book Fair is a complete B2B, where they leave the fair open to the general public for the last two days and the New Delhi World book fair sees to it that the general public has access to the books every day and side by side they do B2B business.”

Apart from books, this time the Book fair is also bringing in different attractions for the public. There would be a children’s pavilion, where quizzes and reading sessions would be conducted to retain the interest among kids about book reading. Bengalis living in Delhi would be happy to know that on the eve of 150 birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, they are organising a Rabindranath Tagore pavilion with his works. Cultural Programme is a new addition to the book fair this time and would be conducted in Lal Chowk theatre in association with the Sahitya Kala Parishad. For the event NBT would take some grant-in-aid from the government but the majority of the money would come from National Book Trust, India. For the event they have taken the venue from IPTO and the source added, “we wanted to make it free entry for the public but the IPTO did not let us as they would pocket the entry fee (20 rupees for adults and 10 rupees for children) of the fair.

When asked about the security measures taken by the NBT, he said that elaborate security measures have been taken and there is no cause of concern. Thus if you are yet to plan your weekend and love everything about books, Pragati Maidan is the place for you.