Disclosure: Dr Deepak Madhok is a member of the family of Dalimss News CEO Maahir Madhok.
The Banaras Lit Fest will hold its fifth edition from Thursday, 4 February, to Sunday, 7 February 2027, at Taj Ganges in Varanasi, its organisers announced on Monday. The four-day festival is expected to bring together writers, thinkers, academics and artists from India and abroad, along with figures from industry and sport.
The dates were shared at a press meeting at a hotel in Nadesar by the festival's patron, Ashok Kapoor, its president, Dr Deepak Madhok, and other office-bearers. The festival's official website now lists the same dates and venue for the 2027 edition, under the banner of its Hindi name, Kashi Sahitya Kala Utsav.
Organisers named several guests they expect to attend. From cinema, they listed actors Sanjay Mishra and Pankaj Tripathi, along with Padma Shri awardee Anil Rastogi. The full programme has not been released yet, so the line-up remains subject to change.
The literary names on the list carry the most weight. Dr Madhok said Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell, whose Tomb of Sand won the International Booker Prize in 2022, are expected, as is Banu Mushtaq, who won the same prize in 2025. Shree wrote the novel in Hindi as Ret Samadhi, and Rockwell translated it into English, which made it the first book translated from an Indian language to win the award.
The visual arts will have their own corner. The organisers said painter Sumitra Ahlawat is expected, along with three Padma Shri awardees: Dr Yashodhar Mathpal, Biman Bihari Das and Premjit Baria. The festival's website describes exhibitions, live painting and installations as part of its spread, alongside classical music, theatre and folk performance.
The festival has moved around the city as it has grown. According to its website, the first edition, held as the Kashi Sahitya Kala Utsav, took place at Swatantrata Bhavan in BHU on 11 and 12 February 2023. The second went to the Rudraksh Convention Centre in Sigra in February 2024, and the third and fourth were both held at the Taj, in March 2025 and from late January into February 2026.
Each edition has carried a theme, and the 2027 one has not been announced. Earlier themes listed by the organisers include Hindi as a world language and, last year, young people shaping the nation in an age of artificial intelligence. The festival is run as an initiative of the Nav Bharat Nirman Samiti, according to its website.
Alongside the sessions, the festival runs its own book prizes. The website says the third BLF Book Awards will be decided over the winter, with a longlist due on 25 December 2026, a shortlist on 4 January 2027 and winners announced on 9 January. The winners are to be felicitated on 7 February, the closing day of the festival, and the site lists a prize of Rs 51,000 in each category.
The organisers also make large claims about scale, describing more than 500 writers, artists and performers, over 75 conversations and work in more than 11 Indian languages, together with book launches and heritage walks. Those are the festival's own figures. How much of that shows up in February will be clearer once the session list is published.
Varanasi has had a busy cultural autumn already. In September the city saw the Kashika colours-and-ragas festival open at Town Hall with a staging of Nirala's work, and Hindi Diwas was marked across BHU, Sanskrit University and Kashi Vidyapith. The lit fest works on a bigger canvas than either, with a four-day programme and a national guest list, but it draws on the same local audience of students, teachers and readers.
The website has not yet published a session schedule or a final speaker list for 2027, and the guests named on Monday will only be firm once that list is out. For now, what they have offered is the outline: four days, one venue on the Nadesar side of the city, and a guest list that, if it holds, would put two International Booker winners from India on the same stage in Banaras.
