As many as
1,854 feature films were submitted to be part of the 2019 Official Selection at the Cannes Film
Festival from across the world this year. As many as 39 nations are represented
as production or co-production countries. India is missing.
Filmmaker Onir rightly questioned: “What are we supposed to
celebrate about Cannes 2019… The cinema that’s being celebrated or just the
clothes our actors wear and the parties they attend. Somehow that is all that
seems to be talked about.”
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Barring the overwhelming red carpet or party looks of Bollywood
actresses making a splash on social media, an India Pavilion, organised by the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Ficci, is doing its bit to forge
international partnerships in distribution, production, pitch India as a
shooting destination and promoting film sales and syndication.
India may be one of the largest film producers in the world, but
no film from the country made it in the competition categories. There was
nothing to boast about in the key sidebars – Director’s Fortnight, Un Certain
Regard and Critics’ Week this year – either, but for one respite: Achyutanand
Dwivedi’s three-minute short film ‘Seed Mother’ which won the third prize in
the international section of Nespresso Talents 2019.
National Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who is a
part of the government-led delegation, found it “unfortunate” that Indian
cinema had no presence at the gala, but said the prerogative of the festival
line-up lies on the jury.
“The jury decides what movies should be shown, and we should
respect what they want. We should be proud because people have taken India
seriously in terms of our cinema, our digital content… People are watching
Indian cinema in a big way. They know our stars very well.
“The overseas business of our films with big stars has escalated
in a huge way. We are taking steps ahead and that’s a good thing. There are
other countries whose movies aren’t there, but the prospects, initiatives and
interaction are very essential to have India on the global map,” Bhandarkar
said.
To make inroads into such a festival, Bhandarkar said it was
essential that Indian filmmakers follow the Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak kind
of cinema with ‘Cannes value’.
Mira Nair was the first Indian to win the Camera d’Or in Cannes
for ‘Salaam Bombay’ in 1988. The last Indian film to compete for the coveted
Palm D’Or at the prestigious gala was Shaji N. Karun’s ‘Swaham’ in 1994.
Southern film actor-writer-director Adivi Sesh had raised a
pertinent point in a Twitter thread about the lack of India’s presence at
Cannes: “I hope people don’t assume that India with all of its diverse culture,
languages and dialects, wasn’t able to produce a single film worthy of Cannes.
Probably, it has a lot more to do with the infrastructure needed to get a film
there.”
Producer Guneet Monga, who has leveraged the power of
co-productions, said creative collaborations with producers across the world
play a major role.
“When you get more creative collaborators and you structure
films internationally like with Europe, there’s a lot of mentorship that comes
with it in terms of storyline and process. That’s what we did with ‘The
Lunchbox’ and ‘Masaan’ (both of which were shown at Cannes). I genuinely feel
co-productions help with the quality of filmmaking and the eye for it for a
global launch.
“It challenges us to make better versions of our own stories,
and I would highly encourage people to do more co-productions to be able to
tell more Indian stories to the world,” said Monga, whose co-production
‘Period. End Of Sentence’ won an Oscar this year.
She said film festivals in general take movies with very high
quality and originality in storytelling.
“It’s not something that can be questioned or reasoned out. We
just need to keep pushing ourselves. Co-productions, I’d say, go a long way in
shaping the narrative of the film in a globally accepted way.”
Actress Huma Qureshi, whose two-part film ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’
was showcased at the Director’s Fortnight sidebar at the film jamboree a few
years ago, is at the gala this year – representing a dose of ‘desi girl power’
as part of a brand association with Grey Goose.
Malayalam filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan finds a silver lining
in Bollywood stars glittering on the red carpet.
“This
is the only reason when a film goes to Cannes, even in a sidebar section, the
media gives some attention.” – Agencies
