ZEE JLF 2019: First sell your story idea in market, then start writing, says Sanjoy Roy

One of the biggest literary extravaganzas on the planet, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival (ZEE JLF) begins today. The festival has drawn criticism from various quarters over the years — for lacking enough local representation to being a boiling pot of controversies. But Sanjay Roy, the man who has wrought the festival into its current shape, does not agree.

In the recent years, the festival has even gone overseas, with editions in London, Melbourne, New York, and Boulder.

In its 11th edition last year, the festival recorded a footfall of nearly half-a-million visitors over five days. A good 80 per cent of these were less than 30 years old. "While many believe that young readers come to Diggi Palace for the food or selfies, it's not so," says the festival's managing director during an exclusive chat at DNA's Jaipur office, "International authors tell me that the best of questions are asked by younger members of the audience. Even if they are here for the food, this must mean something!"

Talking about the kind of impact that the literary fest has on readers, Roy says: "Books worth Rs one crore were sold in five days, which is much more than the monthly sales of five book stores in the city. If people are picking up these many books, they must obviously be reading them too."

The festival has also provided a platform to young writers. Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra and film journalist Anupama Chopra's teenage daughter Zuni Chopra, now 17, addressed the audience from the Samvad stage at Diggi in 2017.

This year, the youngest speaker at the fest is poet Anoushka Sabnis. She published her first book, Once Upon a Verse: Because Poems Tell Stories, in 2017 at the age of 10. "She was here with her parents three years ago; we can see how the fest inspires these young writers. "You cannot say that it doesn't have an impact on young audiences," Roy emphasises.

While self-publishing is big, Roy feels it's not everyone's path to success. "There are all sorts of writers: some finish books in less than a month, yet others keep working on their stories. But the idea is to create something unique, something that stands the test of time," Roy says.

Citing Amish Tripathi's example, Roy says the best-selling author's mythological trilogy met with success because "he had something new to offer; the mythology genre was not explored earlier." Tripathi first manuscript was rejected by over 20 publishers and it broke

"If someone asks me the formula for a best-seller," he says, "I would first tell them to sell their story idea in the market and then start writing. It doesn't work the other way round."

With over 80,000 visitors at Diggi Palace on each day of the fest, there's often contemplation about change of venue but Roy says he has not found anything as spectacular.

In its infancy, the fest was labelled elitist, but Roy is happy with its current state. "We always wanted to open JLF to people from all walks of life," he says. "That's the idea of the festival. A few years ago, as I receiving guests near the Front Lawn, I saw a dhoti-clad man walking in apprehensively with a young boy in tow. I asked if they needed assistance. The man told me that he lived on the footpath nearby and could not afford to send his son to school. He had brought him along hoping that listening to speakers would change his son's life."