In a dreamy retreat for book lovers across the city of Pune and nearby areas, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, inaugurated the second edition of the Pune Book Festival on December 14 last year. The free-to-the-public event held on the premises of Fergusson College (Pune) was jointly organised by the National Book Trust (NBT), the Deccan Education Society, and Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). The theme of the Pune Book Festival 2024 was ‘Celebrating World, Cultures, and Connections’, with an aim to promote the power of reading for everyone.
Additionally, the Pune Book Festival 2024 will be remembered for the Guinness World Record that was set here. Scroll down to know more about the ‘book records’ that were broken here.
The event was well-organised, with a children’s corner, an author’s corner, and a cultural stage to cater to its varied audience. Moreover, cultural programs, traditional dance performances, workshops for students, a literature festival, and food stalls were also organised to give the attendees a comprehensive and wholesome cultural experience. The week-long event hosted over 100 book launches, 500 authors, and 600 book stalls, making it a beautiful platform for exchange between writers, readers, and publishers.
Pune Book Festival 2024: Event Details and Purpose
The event saw author discussions, literary panels, workshops and seminars, publishers, and author stalls focusing on regional literature and book launches. The intention was to create better awareness about regional languages and cultures. The books ranged from fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s literature, self-help, academic works, mythology, spirituality, and history from Indian and global languages.
Pune Literature Festival
For the first time, the Pune Literature Festival was a part of this event. The literature festival had more than 25 sessions on various topics, with more than 60 literary figures participating, including vice-chancellors, authors, poets, journalists, editors, artists, and thinkers. The line-up included Shiv Khera, Govind Dholakia, Deepak Karanjkar, Murlikant Petkar, Vishwas Patil, Sandeep Balakrishna, Dr Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, Vaibhav Purandare, Rahul Shivshankar, Dr Aruna Dhere, Sunil Ambekar, Dr Sadanand More, Akshat Gupta, Akhilendra Mishra, Meera Borwankar, Prof. C. M. Chitale, Dr Sadanad More, and Harish Bhimani.
Children’s Film Festival
The event also hosted the Pune Children’s Film Festival, which gave children free access. Activities for children included a workshop on Vedic mathematics, storytelling, puppet storytime, the art of drawing, painting, dance, music, and a poster-making competition.
Photo Journalism
In the cacophony of books and words, we often forget the stories told through photographs. The Pune Book Festival ’24 honoured photojournalists by dedicating a section to them. The display featured photographs from veteran photojournalists like Vishwajeet Pawar of Dainik Sakal, Swapnil Shinde, and Ashish Kale of Maharashtra Times, who captured iconic moments from the city.
Guinness World Record
On account of the 75th anniversary of the Indian Constitution, a larger-than-life replica was created and placed for public viewing. The replica was 9.94m wide, 10m high, and made with 97,020 books to honour the author’s legacy by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and the significance of the Indian constitution. This feat was achieved in association with DICCI and PBF.
An artwork of the goddess Saraswati was also created and showcased using books from Neelkanth publications and the National Book Trust. This artwork spanned over a thousand square metres, making it the biggest in the world.
Guinness World Record at Pune Book Festival
The online book release program of Acharya Bhagwant Shrimad Vijay Ratnasundar Surishwarji Maharaja witnessed the highest number of participants worldwide, making it a Guinness World Record. Also, his 482nd book was released to a live audience of 1,51,161.
In the final world record event, the largest online photo album was created using 11,11,238 images of book covers, breaking China’s previous record for the same.
Rajesh Ojha of Ritesh Book Agency (Delhi) said, “This year’s event is much bigger, and we had many visitors every day. The only issue we faced is receiving online payments due to poor network connectivity. Hopefully, they will resolve the issue next year.”
The nine-day event concluded on December 22, 2024, and more than four lakh participants were witnessed. The sale of 25 lakh books garnered a turnover of Rs 40 crore. Students from more than 101 colleges affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University, along with residents from all age groups, flocked to this event. Looking at the huge turnout, it’s safe to say that it is a myth that the modern generation doesn’t read.
Copy Editor: Abhijeet Sen