President Droupadi Murmu to inaugurate literary festival 'Unmesha' in Bhopal on Aug 3

Bhopal: President Droupadi Murmu will inaugurate the three-day international literary festival 'Unmesha 2023' in Bhopal on Thursday, an official said on Wednesday.

Along with the literary meet, the National Festival of Folk and Tribal Expressions 'Utkarsha' is being organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Both the mega events will be inaugurated by President Murmu on August 3, Sahitya Academi secretary K Sreenivasarao said.

"'Unmesha' is India's most inclusive and Asia's largest literature festival in terms of the number of languages represented, and is on its way to become the world's largest literature festival," he said.

"In each edition of 'Unmesha' we try to add new topics so that a new set of writers get an opportunity to participate in the discussion and their creativity gets new directions," he added.

Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Meenakshi Lekhi among others will be present on the occasion, the official said.

The Sahitya Akademi, Union Ministry of Culture and Madhya Pradesh culture department are jointly organising this festival, to be held as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

More than 575 authors in 102 languages are expected to participate in over 75 events in 'Unmesha 2023', which is a celebration of expression. Writers from 13 countries will participate in the festival, the official said.

This will be the second edition of 'Unmesha'. The first event was held in Shimla in June 2022.

Writers, scholars, journalists, translators, publishers, cultural activists, theatre personalities, as well as filmmakers from India and abroad will participate in the literary festival, the official said.

As part of the 'Utkarsha' festival of expressions, artists from Madhya Pradesh and other states will present colourful programmes every evening.

Governors of three states - Arif Mohammed Khan (Kerala), Biswa Bhusan Harichandan (Chhattisgarh) and Tamilisai Soundararajan (Telangana) are also expected to participate in the festival of expressions, the official said.