India to focus on its cultural strength at Cannes 2023

By Payal Mehta

New Delhi [India], May 14 : After a successful run at Cannes 2022, where India was the country of honour, this year India will showcase cultural might at the French Riviera.

Minister for State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan will be leading the Indian delegation to this year's Cannes Film Festival. Interestingly, Murugan will be wearing his traditional Tamilian outfit 'veshti' on the red carpet.

Last year when India had a series of celebrities on the red carpet, this time around too Oscar award-winning Indian filmmaker Guneet Monga of 'The Elephant Whisperers' fame, Ms Manushi Chillar, Indian actress, model and the winner of the Miss World 2017, Ms Esha Gupta - acclaimed actress of the Indian Cinema and Kangabam Tomba - acclaimed Mpuri actor would walk the red carpet.

Four Indian films have made it to the official selection at Cannes Film Festival. Kanu Behl's 'Agra' will be his second film to have its world premiere at Cannes, at the Directors' Fortnight. His 2014 debut film, 'Titli', was unveiled at the 'Un Certain Regard' section.

Anurag Kashyap's 'Kennedy' is being screened in Midnight Screenings and Nehemich in the La Cinef section of the Festival de Cannes. Apart from these, many Indian films are slotted for being screened in Marche du Films.

A restored Mpuri film 'Ishanhou' will be showcased in the 'Classics' section. The movie was previously played in the festival's 'Un Certain Regard' section in 1991 and its film reels were preserved by the National Film Archive of India. The Mpur State Film Development Society got the film restored through the Film Heritage Foundation and Prasad Film Labs.

India will continue its push for being the content hub of the world, and a one-stop destination from conceiving to making films to also doing post-production including graphics and mation and other modern techniques and tools. This was envisaged in a huge way by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Anurag Singh Thakur during his visit to the festival last year.

A special focus this year will continue to be on India's culture and heritage at the India Pavilion. The theme for this year's Pavilion is based on the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, designed by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad with the theme - 'Showcasing India's Creative Economy' to the global community.

The pavilion design has been inspired by the Saraswati Yantra, the abstract representation of the goddess Saraswati, keeper of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom and learning.

The colours of the pavilion draw inspiration from the vibrant colours of India's national flag - saffron, white, green, and blue.

Saffron for the strength and courage of the country, white for inner peace and truth, green for showcasing fertility, growth, and auspiciousness of the land, and blue for the law of dharma and truth.

India has a huge reservoir of talent and the Indian Pavilion will provide the platform to the Indian Film community to sign distribution deals, greenlight scripts, crack production collaborations and simply network with the world's major entertainment and media players.

Among the top highlight of last year's festival was the premiere of R Madhavan's Film 'Rocketry'.

Anurag Thakur who will not be present physically at the festival will be delivering a message via video for this year's festival.