Gautam Ghose calls for Nobel recognition for author Amitav Ghosh; nearly 3.5L visit book fair on Saturday

KOLKATA: National Award-winning filmmaker Gautam Ghose, who was conferred with the Samaresh Majumdar Prize at the Kolkata Literature Festival during the 49th International Kolkata Book Fair on Saturday, said that Padma Shri award-winning author Amitav Ghosh deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature. “I strongly believe Amitav should receive the Nobel Prize. Earlier, I thought writers could change society. Today, I feel writers preserve our collective memory for history. Amitav travels extensively, researches and I salute his consistent writing on climate change and ecology. Corporates and power structures rarely compromise on these issues as they chase immediate gains. His recent works carry immense relevance and merit the Nobel,” said Ghose, the director of ‘Moner Manush’. Ghose also recalled his long association with Majumdar, the Sahitya Akademi-winning author. “Though he was five to six years senior to me, we belonged to the same generation of the 1960s. I made ‘Kaalbela’ from his text. Later, I directed Shunyo Awanko, based on a mining company’s aggressive push for bauxite extraction. Today, similar threats loom over the Aravalli Hills. Shunyo Awanko did not receive its due earlier, and I am considering re-releasing it. These corporate blunders must stop,” said the ‘Padma Nadir Majhi’ filmmaker.

Meanwhile, Amitav has returned to the Kolkata Book Fair after 13 years and praised the undiminished enthusiasm of its readers. “Many things have changed in Kolkata, but the excitement of book lovers remains the same. The world reunites in Bengal through this fair and young readers are our greatest inspiration,” said the author. Ghosh also spoke with Arunava Sinha on Bengal’s relationship with waterways and livelihood, followed by sessions on humour in Bengali literature and contemporary relevance, featuring Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Srijato, Pracheta Gupta and Debarati Mukhopadhyay. After drawing 2.5 lakh bibliophiles on Saraswati Puja and Netaji Jayanti, the book fair saw an even bigger surge on Saturday, the first weekend of the fair, with nearly 3.5 lakh book lovers thronging the city’s most cherished literary event.