‘Success always brings its own problems'

First it was the auto show in Delhi, which was creaking at the limits. Next was the Jaipur Literary Fest, where this past Saturday and Sunday a massive crowd milled around the gates and thousands had to be turned back. Inside, it appeared to be more a congregation of the glitterati than the literati. BrandLine caught up with Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Productions, which put together the festival that markets itself as ‘the greatest literary show in the world', to find out if it has not grown too big for its boots.

The festival has clearly grown beyond its limits? What will you do now?

Success always brings its own problems. The festival has in the last five years doubled in size every year. In the first year there were 7,000 attendees, next 14,000, in the third 32,000. Last year, it drew 60,000-plus attendees. This year it is estimated it drew 1.27 lakh. In one sense it is fantastic. But, of course, we have to reconsider the issue of how many people, how do we do it, what we do, and so on. And we will.

One notices that your sponsorships have gone up too? From Tata Steel to BankAm every session had a sponsor.

Each person who enters costs us money. I don't think sponsorship has caught up with the number of people entering. Many of our sponsors are long-term commitments that were set at levels of a few years ago. But when it comes to expanding, every year, there has been a growth of 30 per cent in activities. It is pretty alarming, actually.

So why has it caught on like a viral? Is it smart marketing?

Yes, people have called it the kumbh mela of literary events. I would say it's because of the atmosphere we have created here, and the fact that it is free. It's also because Jaipur is renowned for its hospitality and tourism and there are other things to do. Also, look at the range of things here. In other festivals you would be hard-pressed to get a sandwich, here you can come in, find something to eat, shop.

What are the challenges in organising such a festival?

Security, just controlling people, making sure that we are able to provide the kind of atmosphere that needs to be provided and that, yet, it continues to be a platform for freedom of expression.

But do you think getting Oprah and the presence of Bollywood celebrities, in this case Anupam Kher, turns a literary event into a soap opera?

At the end of the day, we primarily look at speakers who have celebrated literature. I don't think we can deny that Oprah has been singlehandedly responsible for the increase of book sales across America.

In that context, Oprah is a great fit here. And the thing is that we were offered Oprah, we didn't go after her. She was coming to shoot Deepak Chopra, whom we had invited. He asked us if we would like to call Oprah too. Of course, we said yes.

How much is the celebrity author pull factor responsible for the hysteria we see here?

I think, finally, a lot of the people on our programmes, you would not have heard of them. Which is the immediate thing about this festival. It is not the Oprah session that alone gets a 5,000-strong audience. Every session gets an equal number of people.