The Indian contingent at Cannes is the largest one to date, and sees the 66th edition of the festival as a chance to showcase a new genre of Indian movies globally and to promote India as a place to both make films and win a massive audience.
“If you use the term Bollywood it really represents the song-and-dance, credibility-stretched story kind of film,” director Amit Kumar, whose gangster-cop thriller Monsoon Shootout held its premiere at Cannes on Sunday, said. “We need to portray Indian cinema as more international and I hope our presence at Cannes will make the world realise that Indian cinema is most than just about Bollywood.”
A gala dinner to mark Indian cinema’s centenary was due to be held on Sunday and attended by a list of stars including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Freida Pinto. Uma Da Cunha, program advisor at the 2012 Mumbai Film Festival, told Reuters: “The big and significant change in Cannes is that the Indian film industry is being given space and attention on the international film scene and it is attracting business and ties from global film interests.”