India Caravan to Cannes

The subject remained close to Ahluwalia’s heart. He finally decided to weave a fictitious plot about two brothers as C-grade film producers and put his research to use. Miss Lovely is now the second film,after Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan in 2010,to be selected in the competitive category at the Festival de Cannes this year,to be held from May 16-27. It will compete with movies by renowned directors,such as Joachim Lafosse and Pablo Trapero.

In the past,India’s presence at Cannes was measured by the glamourous celebrities. This year,cinema will compete with red carpet presence. Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur at Directors’ Fortnight section; Vasan Bala’s Peddlers at Cannes Critics’ Week,Nilosree Biswas’ short film Broken Memory,Shining Dust in the short film corner,and Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s ongoing project The Untold Tale at L’ Atelier will be showcased .

Till recently,the festival was seen as a platform for Indian filmmakers and actors (as populist instead of critically significant) to market their fare. In 2010,Mallika Sherawat infamously kissed a python on the red carpet to promote her film,Hissss. That year,Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan,Abhishek Bachchan and Vikram walked the red carpet for Mani Ratnam’s Raavan. Last year,director Madhur Bhandarkar made a high-pitched announcement about his next star-studded project,Heroine.

This time,cinema will speak louder than marketing gimmicks. The screening of Kashyap’s two-part gangster film,Gangs of Wasseypur,which unfolds over six hours and spans three generations,could become a high point. He scores a double bill as Peddlers,backed by his own banner — Anurag Kashyap Films — and directed by his assistant director Vasan Bala,will have seven screenings between May 21-23.

“It is the third film I wrote that Anurag rejected. That drove me to do a good job and I made the film on my own,using crowd-funding,” reminisces Bala. Kashyap saw its first edit and decided to finance it,then pitched it to Cannes. Films like Broken Memory,Shining Dust (on Kashmiri half-widows) and The Untold Tale (a Spanish girl’s search for her Indian roots) facilitate the interface of these filmmakers with potential financiers and distributors in the global arena.

Glamour from Bollywood will do its bit with Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan completing a decade at Cannes as the face for L’Oreal. This time,she will will travel with her five-month-old daughter,Aaradhya . It is,however,unlikely that Cannes will be the platform for the baby’s first public appearance. “Aishwarya has not decided on who will dress her up. She is keen on Indian-wear keeping her post-pregnancy weight in mind,” says a source.

While Rai-Bachchan was among the first Indians to be invited at Cannes,more and more beauties from Bollywood have gone that way. Actor Sonam Kapoor,also a L’Oreal brand ambassador,made her debut on the red carpet last year and is likely to attend the festival this year.