NE LITERARY BUREAU
CHENNAI, SEPT 24
What if the next great digital innovation in a child’s life is not another screen, but a printed book held in both hands? In an age when children and young adults increasingly swipe, scroll and stream, Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2026 is preparing to open a different kind of window—one that leads into stories, ideas and imagination through the enduring magic of books.
The city’s much-awaited celebration of literature returns to its “home-by-the-sea”, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) from October 23 to 25, with its 17th edition promising three days of conversations, encounters and experiences across generations.
- Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2026 returns to NCPA from October 23–25
- 17th edition brings writers, thinkers, artists, journalists and changemakers across generations and disciplines
- Literature, cinema, technology, sport, medicine, history and the digital world converge in a festival of ideas
- Little Festival and book swap seek to nurture the next generation of readers beyond the screen
- Godrej Industries Group joins the festival as Title Partner for a multi-year literary journey
- Awards, debates, performances, workshops and book launches add fresh dimensions to Mumbai’s cultural calendar
After 16 editions of enriching Mumbai’s cultural landscape, the festival is entering a new chapter with Godrej Industries Group joining as its Title Partner.
For a festival seeking to keep reading alive in the digital age, the emphasis is not simply on books but on the larger ecosystem around them—writers and readers, questions and conversations, imagination and ideas.
For over a century, Godrej has stood at the intersection of art and industry, poetry and progress, embodying the ‘Genius of &’. Its refreshed narrative, ‘Crafting Tomorrow’, aligns with the festival’s vision and marks a multi-year association with one of India’s prominent literary events.
Sujit Patil, Chief Communications Officer, Godrej Industries Group, said,
“Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest aims at celebrating Mumbai’s love for literature and thoughtful conversations. For over a century, we at Godrej have been a house of both poets and engineers; of people who dream and people who build. That duality sits at the heart of our purpose: ‘Crafting tomorrow since 1897’, and it is why this association feels less like a partnership and more like a homecoming. We are delighted to help shape the festival.”
Where literature meets the wider world
Continuing its identity as a festival of ideas as much as literature, the 2026 edition will traverse an unusually broad landscape—literature, cinema, journalism, economics, medicine, history, arts, sport, technology, environment, identity and the digital ecosystem.
The line-up brings together Aditi Mittal, Anurag Minus Verma, Ayaz Memon, Boria Majumdar, Cyriac Abby Philips, Faye D’Souza, Gagan Gill, Gulzar, Irwin Allan Sealy, Jaspreet Bindra, Javed Akhtar, Jerry Pinto, Juhi Babbar, Kaushik Basu, Mazda Turel, Naman Ahuja, Pavan K Varma, Ramachandra Guha, Ratna Pathak Shah, Ria Chopra, Shanta Gokhale, Shashi Tharoor, Shefali Shah and Sonali Kulkarni, among others.
The breadth is deliberate: the festival seeks to demonstrate that reading is not confined to literature alone. Books and ideas can illuminate everything from public life and economics to medicine, technology, cinema, sport and the environment.
A festival that puts books back in children’s hands
One of the most significant interventions for the next generation will be the Literature Live! Little Festival, in collaboration with the HT Parekh Foundation, featuring specially curated sessions for children.
The initiative could provide a much-needed bridge between today’s screen-native youngsters and the slower, deeper pleasures of reading—where a page is not merely something to swipe past, but a place to pause, imagine and discover.
The festival will also feature the ever-popular book swap, creating another opportunity for books to travel from one reader to another and potentially introduce young readers to stories beyond algorithms and digital recommendations.
Ideas, awards and conversations
The festival’s programme will include the Godrej Literature Live! Literary Awards for Lifetime Achievement, Poet Laureate, Fiction, Non-fiction and Business books.
Other highlights include the Great Debate, Book in Focus, international performances, workshops and book launches, alongside conversations spanning the many worlds that shape contemporary society.
The Godrej DEI Lab will continue the festival’s focus on inclusion, foregrounding voices from the LGBTQIA+ community and minority groups.
Amy Fernandes, Festival Co-Director, said,
“We are proud to be bringing our 17th edition, which continues the festival’s legacy of presenting voices and ideas most relevant to our rapidly transforming society, with the distinguished line-up spanning generations and disciplines”.
Quasar Thakore Padamsee, Festival Co-Director, said,
“For 16 editions now, I have seen the impact of the power of words through changing times, and this year’s programming too reflects that. With Godrej Industries Group, we have a partner who also envisions a world where literature brings light, learning, upliftment and solace”.
As screens compete relentlessly for attention, Mumbai’s literary festival is making a simple but powerful proposition: there is still something uniquely transformative about turning a physical page.
And for a generation growing up with a world at its fingertips, perhaps the most exciting discovery could be the world waiting quietly between the covers of a book.
