Stories
Gulzar, Tharoor, Akhtar to Headline Mumbai LitFest: A Star-Studded Literary Extravaganza
- •The 17th Godrej Literature Live! – The Mumbai LitFest will feature prominent speakers including Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Shashi Tharoor, Ramachandra Guha, Ratna Pathak Shah, Shefali Shah, and Sonali Kulkarni.
- •Scheduled from October 23 to October 25, the festival returns to the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) for its two-day annual event.
- •The festival will explore a wide range of topics beyond literature, encompassing cinema, journalism, economics, medicine, history, arts, sport, technology, environment, identity, and the digital ecosystem.
- •Highlights include the Godrej Literature Live! Literary Awards, the ‘Great Debate’, ‘Book in Focus sessions’, international performances, workshops, book launches, and a popular book swap.
- •This year's edition, in collaboration with the Godrej DEI Lab, will continue its focus on inclusion, featuring programming that highlights voices from the LGBTQIA+ community and minority groups.
Key Questions Answered
The 17th edition of Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest is scheduled to be held starting from October 23, 2026, and will conclude on October 25, 2026. The two-day annual literary festival will return to its traditional venue at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai.
The festival features a distinguished lineup of speakers, including veteran lyricists Gulzar and Javed Akhtar, senior politician-author Shashi Tharoor, historian Ramachandra Guha, and actors Ratna Pathak Shah, Shefali Shah, and Sonali Kulkarni. Other notable participants include Jerry Pinto, Shanta Gokhale, Kaushik Basu, and Ayaz Memon.
The festival features conversations spanning cinema, economics, history, technology, and the digital ecosystem, alongside the Godrej Literature Live! Literary Awards for categories like lifetime achievement and fiction. It also includes the 'Great Debate', book launches, workshops, a book swap, and continued inclusion programming with the Godrej DEI Lab foregrounding minority and LGBTQIA+ voices.
