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Cannes 2019: Bollywood films missing from the prestigious film festival – what’s ailing the industry?

Cannes which is one of the most prestigious international film festivals is barely registering any Indian presence in the movie circuit this year

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While Bollywood has been making its presence felt on the fashion front at the ongoing 72nd Cannes Film Festival, what hasn’t gone unnoticed is the fact that there is barely any representation from our Indian film industry when it comes to cinema. In fact, it’s almost like the most prestigious film festival generates our interest only as far as the red carpet goes and not to the theatres where the red carpet leads to. All one sees and hears about is what our film stars are going to wear and walk in at the red carpet.

So why is there such a depletion of Indian content at the film festival? Veteran journalist Saibal Chatterjee points out certain issues plaguing the film industry here. He says, “The problem lies in two areas – one relates to how the government does little to support independent cinema (unlike the governments of many smaller countries). The other issue is the superficial manner in which Indian media covers the Cannes festival. The emphasis is only on fashion, on numbers rather than quality. But we must note that this is the first time this decade that India does not have a single film in Cannes’ official selection. Since Udaan in 2010, India has had a film every year here until last year with Manto.”

The hyped India Pavilion is not of any use for international filmmakers, as it is more about Indians using the space to only showcase their films. We haven’t really had great success stories where in a film has been picked up and that has made it big internationally. National Award-winning filmmaker Rima Das is there with her film Village Rockstars and Guneet Monga whose film has won the Oscar is probably the only one who is on the world cinema radar today. Her film Period End of Sentence won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.

The India Pavilion is more about getting the world to come and shoot in India. A special IFFI poster marking its Golden Jubilee edition with a film guide showcasing the importance of the film ecosystem and government incentives to shoot in India was released at the festival recently. Prasoon Joshi even admitted this year that India requires far greater creative presence in the Cannes Film Festival.

GK Desai, a filmmaker who is also a regular at Cannes says, “It’s a very dampening spirit at Cannes this year and the general mood here is rather low, which I have never seen in the past. The kind of cinema that the festival selects is of really high quality, so the chance of an Indian film to be on the list is really slim. One of the main reasons why the participation and selection of Indian films is depleting at the international festival especially Cannes is that we no longer have masters like Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. The platform is now being used by brands only to promote themselves which  has celebrity quotient.”

So what is the Indian Pavilion all about and what happens there every year. Desai informs, “Every country has its pavilion so does India. This time IFFI is managing the show, so there is government support but not many films to promote or sell in the international market. So they are ending up selling locations and co-production proposals to the foreigners.”

Desai adds, “I met Anurag Kashyap, who is probably one of the few people who has been in the international circuit but he too was there just to launch some app, so now you know where we are heading in terms of making our presence felt internationally. I dont see any masters coming out of India to impress the international world.”

Reacting to a comment by senior journalist on Cannes turning into Chandivali Studio, Desai said, “It is one thing for the journalist to make a cheeky remark, but let me tell you it is not easy to make an entry on the red carpet. You will either have to spend money or get a big sponsor to be there. Nobody can just walk the red carpet.”

So, while the presence of the fashionistas can’t be overlooked, the fact that our cinema is failing to grab the same attention should be our wake-up call for sure.

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