Sanjoy Roy, the catalyst behind literary festivals of India

Shomini Sen

December 29, 2019
8 min read
Jaipur Literature Festival Sanjoy Roy Teamwork Arts

Sanjoy Roy, the producer of Jaipur Literature Festival, has been promoting arts and culture for three decades. And the results are impressive on the cultural as well as economic front. By Shomini Sen

There is something very unassuming about Sanjoy Roy. The man who was instrumental in starting one of world’s biggest literary festivals, Jaipur Literature Festival, wears success lightly on his shoulder. Roy’s company Teamwork Arts has been instrumental in bringing artists and Indian literature into the forefront in the last three decades. But despite the fame, the accolades, and the adulation, Roy’s approach to work remains the same even after so many years as he continues to think of newer ideas and ways to create the ideal platform for art.

As we sit down for a candid chat at his beautifully designed office in Sultanpur, New Delhi, one sunny afternoon, Roy’s office is bustling with activities. Dressed in a white shirt and beige trousers, he looks fresh and upbeat and welcomes us with a warm smile. The smile is all too familiar for those who have been JLF regulars, where each year, Roy welcomes people right at the fountain outside the front lawns at Diggi Palace with open arms.

Over the past three decades, Teamwork has managed and provided a platform for hundreds of artists to showcase their talent. The various festivals that the company organises every year across the world attract hoards of art and culture enthusiasts and contribute majorly to local economy and provide earnings to the artists as well. But Roy, a self-confessed jhola wala from Mandi house, states, “Until and unless we can make the government create a policy or create a platform for arts- we haven’t achieved anything.”

Roy recalls, that when he started Teamwork along with his partner Mohit Satyanand back in 1989, the company was to cater to NGOs and make documentaries for them. “When we set up that, it was primarily to create job opportunities for lots of our colleagues in theatre. We could do theatre and earn a living. That was the basic idea. It morphed into Teamwork primarily because some of those colleagues came on board and the idea was to create video imagery and moving pictures, documentaries etc for the NGO sector.”

Teamwork, in its initial days, produced a lot of content for TV. Roy admits, “We were at the right place at the right time. That was the time when private channels had just started business in India and we created shows for them – all kinds of content.” After five years of creating shows for TV, one fine day, two of the senior members of the company came and told Roy that they were fatigued and ‘brain dead’ working for TV. Roy recalls that the separation process from various production houses took another six months. “Some were extremely angry, some even refuse to pay us. But we had to deal with it.”

**Sanjoy Roy at the office of Teamwork Arts in Delhi | Image: Fotuwalle by DHP Labs**

Teamwork Arts initially provided a platform for musicians to showcase their talent. “My partner Mohit Satyanand had meanwhile started something called Friends of Music. It started off as a meet up for musician, where they would come together every Sunday, people would bring food and you could listen to music.” The Sunday ‘mini concerts’ later saw bands like Indian Ocean, Mrigya and Orange Street performing live. The success of these Sunday meets made Roy and Satyanand replicate the model for theatre because in the early 1990s, there was very little original writing that was done in English theatre.

“Then we realised we had enough content but not adequate platforms to showcase this talent barring a few festivals, so we thought why not create a platform that caters not just Indian audience but across the world.”

The first opportunity came at the Edinburgh Festival (Scotland). Roy says that the motive of setting up Teamwork was to prove that art too can generate revenue. “We needed to prove that art creates tangible wealth in an economy. Art did contribute to society and economy.”

He feels that Indians have art and culture in their DNA. “Each one of us has a talent. It’s in our DNA – from cradle to grave… we embody the arts – it marks our birth, death and everything in between. But there aren’t enough organised platform for this diverse display of creative energy to find expression.” Roy, in fact, urges youth to come into this line and look at it as a management unit. “Not only should they be choosing performing arts as a profession but the youth should also create space for our artists. That’s what is lacking in India. We have incredible content but not enough organisations to promote it,” reasons Roy.

Lack of adequate platform is just one of the problems that performing arts face in the country. There are in fact other problems as well. From lack of State backing in terms of promoting the local art form, to lack of subsidy to even lack of understanding of local art- problems are plenty. “There isn’t enough understanding that arts and culture can contribute to local economy,” rues Roy and gives out figures to support his statement. “Three or four years back, we had done a survey and realised that JLF contributed Rs 26 crore to the city’s spending that year. So you see, festivals create employment opportunities across sectors. In an agrarian society, the secondary income in every household is from the local art.”

Roy along with authors William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale founded the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2008. What started as a gathering of literary enthusiasts has become a brand in itself in the last 12 years. Over the years it has witnessed some of the biggest names in literature as well as pop culture visiting the festival and interacting with the audience. The festival is a case study at the Harvard Business School where students are taught about one of the fastest growing cultural brands in the world.

While the crowds have thronged JLF year after year making it one of the biggest cultural extravaganzas in the country, it has also faced its fare share of controversies. “The politics of any controversy is so complex. It distracts from the great minds who participate every year. But it’s also a huge learning,” feels Roy. Roy also feels that media only highlights a certain group of speakers every year and ignores a lot of regional authors.

Controversies aside, the festival has inspired many more to mushroom across the country in the past decade and Roy encourages it wholeheartedly. Nearly 126 festivals have mushroomed over the years across the subcontinent. “We encourage it. Every cultural platform has to showcase India’s diversity.”

Having a strong background in theatre – he was part of the Barry John Theatre Group – Roy does feel that the attitude towards performing arts has changed over the past three decades. “We were an aberration back then. But now we get to see incredible talent, across the economic divide. Earlier a lot of us were backed by our families, but things have changed now. Every art form is now an acceptable employment opportunity for people across the economic divide.” Roy’s Teamwork Arts has also been instrumental in starting the famed Ishara Puppet Festival and Mahindra Theatre Festival.

Despite being one of pioneers in his field and having won accolades for his work, Roy still looks upbeat and restless to do more work. “I don’t think we have achieved anything yet. A million teamworks should come up,” he quips.

So what is keeping him excited nowadays, we ask before signing off, “JLF Moma in New York. JLF boulder follows soon after, then in Harare in Africa we will host one. Bunch of exciting things coming up actually,” he rattles of excitedly and then pauses and adds, “Too much perhaps,” with a smile.