Journalism of Courage
A walk on the red carpet, a keynote speech at a gathering of the influential, and an award. Amruta Fadnavis had an eventful time at the Cannes Film Festival in France last week.
On May 22, Fadnavis, who runs an NGO called Divyaj Foundation for marginalised people, received an award from the Better World Fund, a Paris-based endowment fund, for making “meaningful changes and positively impacting the world and transforming our agriculture and transforming our agriculture and food systems”.
The organisation, which claims to connect grassroots movements with influential people across cinema and business, counts actor Sharon Stone, Prince Albert of Monaco, and the singer Akon among its supporters. Actor Kiera Chaplin is on its board of advisors.
The same day she received the award, Fadnavis walked the red carpet at the film festival and was the keynote speaker of an event titled “Masterminds”. There, she spoke about agricultural and food sustainability in the Indian context. “It was enriching to share thoughts & ideas with different Nationals at the ceremony organised by Better World,” she tweeted on the occasion.
“Amruta is engaging in various initiatives for vulnerable people and communities. I am glad that she got this invite to participate at such a celebrated forum and also got the recognition,” former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Amruta’s husband Devendra Fadnavis told The Indian Express.
Apart from Amruta, the Fund also honoured the Ivory Coast’s First Lady Dominique Ouattara, Stone, actor Skyler Griswold, and businessman Stéphane Layani. The organisation’s founder Manuel Collas De La Roche told The Indian Express that Amruta was chosen for the award because she “is very committed, kind and humble”.
He added, “She does a lot of work with women, acid attack survivors, and around sustainability. As a fund, we wanted to highlight someone’s work in India and Amruta is very dedicated.”
De La Roche said the organisation planned to host events in Mumbai next year.
The Fund, as per its website, organises international events with “filmmakers, leaders, companies and change makers” to make “international commitment for sustainable development goals a reality”.
The visit to Cannes was not Amruta Fadnavis’ first time at an international forum. In 2018, she attended the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos, Switzerland. The year before, she represented Maharashtra at the National Prayer Breakfast Forum for World Peace in Washington, DC.
— With ENS Mumbai inputs
