Kolkata is considered as the cultural capital of India. It is the home of intellectuals, authors, readers, poets and critics. The most prominent evidence of this is the International Kolkata Book Fair, where over 25 lakh Kolkatans visit every year over a period of 12 days to buy books and celebrate literature in the purest form. Kolkata hosts several International Literature Festivals. However, there hasn’t been any prominent stage for its own local literature and its varied hues. To fill this void and establish a platform, Kolkata’s oldest bookstore, Oxford Bookstore, in association with Patra Bharati, organized the Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob in 2015 and since then has become an integral part of the city’s social and cultural calendar.
Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob pioneers in providing an interactive platform for the voices of Contemporary Bangla Literature, encouraging and involving young people with different aspects of Bangla literature, and familiarizing them with the nuances of Bangla as a literary language, which is considered one of the most mellifluous and ornate languages of the world. The Utsob showcases the multitudinous gems that make Bangla literature a treasure trove of cultural and literary excellence.
Over the years, the festival has been graced by eminent authors, renowned film directors, poets and musicians covering all the facets of Bangla literature. Eminent authors Sankha Ghosh, Shirshendu Mukherjee, Sanjib Chatterjee, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Samaresh Majumdar, Imdadul Haq Milon, Bani Basu, Pracheta Gupta, Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Prafulla Ray, Srijato, Anish Deb, Himadri Kishore Dasgupta and Subodh Sarkar amongst others; renowned film directors like Goutam Ghose, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Mainak Bhaumik; popular Bengali musicians Rupam Islam, Nachiketa and Surojit Chatterjee; actors Barun Chanda, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Abir Chatterjee, Rahul Arunodoy Banerjee, Riddhi Sen, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Swastika Mukherjee and Amrita Chattopadhyay have graced the festival. Honorable Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Kolkata Janab Zokey Ahad has also been part of the festival.