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Mumbai’s only international literary festival, Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest has created a democratic, cross-cultural space for incredible changemakers to come under the city’s bright, blue sky every winter over the years. This year, too, the festival returns for its 16th edition to its home at the NCPA in Nariman Point from 7th to 9th November 2025. Presented by the Godrej Industries Group, this edition promises a diverse selection of over 100 writers, speakers, thinkers, performers, and the literati at large, from across borders, to bask in a multitude of voices and stories cutting across genders, communities, and languages.
The three-day festival boasts a line-up of some of the brightest minds across fiction, poetry, health, history, business, science, philosophy, and justice, while capturing the essence of Mumbai in a way never seen before. Leading this extraordinary confluence of voices are celebrated names like D Y Chandrachud (former Chief Justice of India), as well as award-winning author and politician Shashi Tharoor, known for his sharp, playful intellect. Media personalities like Faye D’Souza (journalist and news anchor), renowned author, journalist, columnist, and social commentator Shobhaa De, alongside Paromita Vohra, an award-winning filmmaker, author, and columnist, will also be present. From the world of entertainment, the line-up features well-known actors like Lillete Dubey, Soha Ali Khan, and Jim Sarbh.
Meanwhile, catch Jerry Pinto (Em and the Big Hoom), winner of the Sahitya Akademi and Windham-Campbell Prizes, Shubhangi Swarup (Latitudes of Longing), author and lifestyle guru, Luke Coutinho, as well as poet, novelist and former journalist Jeet Thayil talk about their latest works.
LitFest has always promoted thought leadership from across borders, emphasising the need for global perspectives. In keeping with this, the festival will also host Malaysian-Australian author, poet, rapper and visual artist Omar Musa (Here Come the Dogs), Yang Shuang-zi, (a Taiwanese novelist and pop literature researcher), Shehan Karunatilaka (Winner of the 2022 Booker Prize), Nobel Prize-winning structural biologist and UK-based author Venki Ramakrishnan, author and co-founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, alongside Sam Dalrymple (historian, columnist, writer, and Co-founder of Project Dastaan, which is reconnecting 1947 partition survivors with their ancestral homes through VR).
Other notable personalities include:
- Anindita Ghose (Author, journalist, and editor)
- Ashok Alexander (Founder-Director of The Antara Foundation)
- Ashok Vajpeyi (Hindi-language poet, essayist, literary-cultural critic, ex-civil servant)
- Atul Dodiya (India’s most-acclaimed post-colonial artist)
- Christian Stöcker (Professor of Digital Communication at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, psychologist, tech & science journalist, a writer)
- Roopa Kudva (Business leader, investor, and board director at Infosys & Nestlé India)
- Shabnam Minwalla (Award-winning children’s author and columnist, known for The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street)
- Shereen Bhan (Journalist, news anchor, and Managing Editor of CNBC-TV18)
- Sitanshu Yashaschandra (Sahitya Akademi and Padma Shri Award-winning Gujarati poet, playwright, and academic).
- Swati Pandey (Civil servant, storyteller & social innovator spending her time in infrastructure project implementation and amplifying unheard voices)
Celebrating 16 inspiring years, Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest promises a visual and literary spectacle and mind-nurturing sessions with other mainstays of the festival, including the Poet Laureate and Lifetime Achievement Awards. There are also activities and sessions curated for children from 7-8 November 2025. The festival has always been gleaming with new and veteran voices, encapsulating the literary spirit and the bustling energy of the city. Come and witness it live in the maximum city, which upholds every voice that has a story to tell and a change to propel!
