The organisers released the eighth list of 10 speakers today. The new line-up has speakers from India and across the globe including noted screenwriter-poet-lyricist Akhtar, who has been a regular at the literary event.
French, a British biographer and historian living in Delhi and known for his books "The World Is What It Is" and his biography of Nobel Laureate V S Naipual, is also returning to the festival. He is currently working on the authorised biography of Doris Lessing.
Other speakers include Manav Kaul, an author, playwright, actor and director, Mei Fong, the Pulitzer award-winning Malaysian writer, known for her book on China's one-child policy and Anuradha Beniwal, a former National chess champion, who debuted with her Hindi book "Aazadi Mera Brand".
Trentmann, a professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, will attend the festival to talk about his new book "Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First Century".
The 2017 edition will take place between January 19 and 23 at the historic Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur.