Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford and published the first of eight novels, The Circle of Reason, in 1986. The first novel in his Ibis trilogy, Sea of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He received the Jnanpith Award in 2018.
Shekhar Kapur is a globally-recognised film director, media visionary and proponent on the future of New Media. Having started his career as an accountant, management consultant and economist in London, he returned to India in search of a new direction and went on to become a well-known actor, director, writer and producer. He is best known for films, such as Elizabeth the Golden Age, Bandit Queen and Four Feathers, that have won or been nominated for numerous awards including the Oscars, BAFTAs and Filmfare Awards. He has executive produced the Bollywood-themed, Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay Dreams as well as films such as The Guru for Universal Studios. He set up Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience, with Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra. He is the Founder and Chairman of Qyuki Media, a company he started last year in partnership with Cisco, and is creating emotive Social Media communities beyond Facebook. He also sits on a number of boards and advisory committees including the Media Development Authority of Singapore, the Prime Minister of India’s Special Advisory Board for Innovation, Media and New Media and the International Global Water Challenge. He was given one of India’s highest civilian state awards, the Padma Shri, for his service to media in the nation.

Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest, is India's leading literary festival, attracting the world's great writers, performers and publishers. Last year, over 150 writers from 17 countries took part in the festival. It has hosted world renowned authors like Sir Vidia Naipual, Anne Enright, Martin Amis, Germaine Greer, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor, Ramchandra Guha, Ben Okri, Vikram Seth, Tom Friedman, Sebastian Faulks, AC Grayling, Lionel Shriver, Neil McGregor and many other Nobel, Booker and Pulitzer Prize winning authors. Now celebrating its 10th year, the festival will take place from November 14 to 17, 2019, at NCPA, Nariman Point; Title Waves, Bandra and Prithvi Theatre, Juhu.
Penguin Random House India is the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent, publishing over 250 new titles every year and with an active backlist of over 3000 titles. With a strong fiction and non-fiction list, it publishes across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint. Penguin Random House India's illustrious list includes Booker Prize-winning novels and winners of virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Several of PRHI’s authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours. Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India and the sub-continent.
Royal Opera House, Mumbai is widely touted as Mumbai’s Cultural Crown Jewel and India’s only surviving Opera House. The original idea for the space was conceived of in 1908, inaugurated in 1911 by King George V, and eventually completed in 1916. The design incorporated a blend of European and Indian detailing. The space became a cinema in later years before falling into disrepair and shutting by the 1990s. Fittingly, the space has been owned by the Royal Family of Gondal since 1952 and was eventually restored by conservation architect, Abha Narain Lambah under the leadership of His Highness, Maharaja Shri Jyotendrasinhji of Gondal. The Royal Opera House Mumbai, now one of the last remaining Baroque structures in the city, reopened after 23 years in October 2016. The building was included on the 2012 World Monuments Watch to raise awareness about its history and significance, and support preservation efforts. The building has since been recognized with an Award of Merit in the 2017 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The restored facilities feature a 575-seater 3-level auditorium with an orchestra pit and state of the art technological upgradations, including acoustics, stagecraft, lighting and air-conditioning, alongside retaining the old world charm of the proscenium stage, the royal boxes and the magnificent regal chandeliers. Some more enhancements to the venue include a motorized screen, co-axial ceiling speaker system, Four-zone volume control and all round wifi access. Today, it stands as a key performance and creative hub in the city’s cultural landscape, while being a premier heritage landmark.
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Avid Learning, a public programming platform and cultural arm of the Essar Group, has conducted over 1000 programs and connected with more than 125,000 individuals since its inception in 2009. Driven by the belief that Learning Never Stops, AVID’s multiple formats like Workshops, Panel Discussions, Gallery Walkthroughs, and Festival Platforms create a dynamic and interactive atmosphere that stimulates intellectual and creative growth across the fields of Culture & Heritage, Literature, Art and Innovation.
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