The Story
OrganizerPune has long been called the Oxford of the East, a city of universities, students and readers, and it was into that soil that Dr Manjiri Prabhu, an author and filmmaker with a doctorate in communication science, planted a literary festival in 2013. From its inception, she has said, the Pune International Literary Festival aimed to put Pune on the global literary stage, and over the following decade it did just that, growing into one of the country's leading literary festivals and an eagerly awaited fixture of the city's cultural calendar.
PILF's character is defined by a few clear commitments. It is free and open to all, and it is multilingual, describing itself as the first and only multilingual literary festival that is free for all in Pune, principles that keep it accessible and rooted in the city's plural literary life. Held each December across two or three days at venues around Pune, it packs dozens of sessions, often seventy or more, into a handful of halls, ranging across fiction and mythology, politics and publishing, mental health and nature poetry, education and the arts, and pairs them with book launches and direct interaction between writers and readers. Its guest lists have been striking: over the years the festival has hosted more than two thousand five hundred speakers, among them international figures such as Jane Goodall, Cecelia Ahern and Anthony Horowitz, and national luminaries including Shashi Tharoor, Sudha Murthy, Javed Akhtar, Narayana Murthy, Amish Tripathi and Shobhaa De.
The festival has also built an international frame around its local roots. Since 2016 it has partnered with the Salzburg Global Seminar, and it collaborates with embassies from France, Germany, Portugal, Austria and Switzerland, infusing the programme with global voices and cross-cultural exchange. In doing so, PILF has come to occupy a distinctive place in India's crowded festival landscape: a free, multilingual, internationally connected literary festival that has, edition by edition, added to the cultural personality of its host city.
PILF is significant as one of India's leading literary festivals and as a model of accessible, multilingual literary culture. Its founding commitments, free entry and multilingualism, keep serious literary engagement open to a broad public and rooted in the plural languages of its region, an important counterweight in a festival ecosystem that can skew English and ticketed. By connecting readers directly with a wide range of national and international authors, and by fostering young writers, it strengthens reading culture in a city defined by education. Its partnership with the Salzburg Global Seminar and its embassy collaborations give it a genuine international dimension, positioning Pune within global literary exchange while celebrating regional writing.
As literary festivals multiply, PILF matters for combining scale and stature with free, multilingual access, keeping literary culture open and plural rather than exclusive. Its longevity since 2013, its breadth of speakers and themes, and its international partnerships make it a significant platform for writers and readers alike, and a cultural anchor for Pune. For the Atlas, PILF is a key node in mapping India's literary culture, particularly the tradition of accessible, multilingual city festivals.
