- By Simran Srivastav
- Sun, 21 May 2023 04:42 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious events held annually to honour the cinema and its art across the globe. Filmmakers and actors from different film industries from around the world are gathered at the event to represent their cinema and their country. Even though we have been seeing Indian representation at Cannes over the years, is this representation only limited to the red carpet and fashion?
Only 4 Indian Films Screening At Cannes 2023:
At Cannes 2023, only four Indian films will be screened, and none of them will be screened under any competition segment. These films are: Kanu Behl’s 'Agra' selected for screening in the Directors’ Fortnight section, Anurag Kashyap’s 'Kennedy' selected in the Midnight Screenings, 'Nehemich' in the La Cinef section and the Manipuri film 'Ishanhou' selected for screening in the Classics section.
Indian Representation At Cannes Only Limited To Red Carpet And Fashion:
Over the years, many Indian actors like Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Vidya Balan, and Anurag Kashyap, among others have graced the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival. We scroll through social media to judge which celebrity was the best and the worst dressed but the topic of representing Indian cinema never arises.
This year too, Indian stars Aishwarya Rai, Urvashi Rautela, Vijay Varma, Manushi Chhillar and Sara Ali Khan attend the prestigious film festival and Anushka Sharma will soon grace the red carpet. When Indians were proud to see their representation at Cannes 2023, Urvashi Rautela was called 'Aishwarya Rai' while posing on the red carpet.
Even though the screening of four Indian films is a huge deal for the representation of our film industry, competing for the highest honour at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d’Or Award, seems unlikely.
Chetan Anand’s 'Neecha Nagar, Only 1 Indian Film To Win Palme d’Or Award:
Chetan Anand’s directorial 'Neecha Nagar' is the first Indian film to gain recognition at the Cannes Film Festival and is also the only Indian film to be ever awarded a Palme d'Or. The movie was based on a Hindi story of the same name, written by Hayatullah Ansari, which was also inspired by Russian writer Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths. 'Neecha Nagar' starred Chetan Anand's wife Uma Anand, Rafiq Anwar, Kamini Kaushal, Murad, Rafi Peer, Hamid Butt, and Zohra Sehgal.
'Neecha Nagar' is credited to start the trend of making social realism films in Indian cinema and many filmmakers took the liberty to open the path of making 'parallel cinema', which was an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s.
Despite gaining international recognition and paying the way for several trends in Indian cinema, 'Neecha Nagar' was never released in India.
With a wide range of talent and diversity in India, it is high time that international films festival will start recognising Indian cinema and not just Indian stars in the name of representation.