What’s India’s history at Cannes?

Brut India

Yes, Deepika Padukone was on the Cannes jury in 2022 but did you know that India’s relationship with the festival goes all the way back to 1946? Brut is the official media partner for Cannes Film Festival 2024. #Cannes2024

Transcript

00:00When we think about the Cannes Film Festival, we think about glamour, the red carpet and

00:05stars flooding the French Riviera.

00:07Some Indian names have even become regulars at the festival.

00:10Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Mallika Sharad and Deepika Padukone are among the

00:16few.

00:17Deepika was also the most recent Indian to be on the festival's jury back in 2022.

00:21And there will come a day I truly believe where India won't have to be at Cannes, Cannes

00:25will be in India.

00:26But India's history at Cannes goes all the way back to three independents.

00:31In 1946, Chetan Anand's Meecha Nagar became the first Indian film to gain recognition

00:37at Cannes when it won the coveted Palme d'Or prize.

00:41It was the story of an autocratic mayor who ignored his villagers' plight during an epidemic

00:46brought on by sewage.

00:47A decade later, Satyajit Ray's directorial debut Pothir Pachali, which was also the first

00:52film in Ray's Apu Trilogy, won the Best Human Document award.

00:57It was in 1982 when filmmaker Mrinal Sen became an international jury member at the festival.

01:03Back home, Sen had established himself as a leader in Indian parallel cinema.

01:08And the following year, in 1983, his film Kharaj won the jury prize at Cannes.

01:14The film was a commentary on child labour told through the story of the child, Palan.

01:19Five years later, Meera Nair's first feature film, Salaam Bombay, won two awards at the

01:24festival.

01:25It won the Camera d'Or, or the Golden Camera, as well as the Audience Award.

01:30In 1990, another Indian was part of the Cannes jury.

01:33It was Nair.

01:34In 1997, Gautam Ghosh's Gudiya was screened in the Uncertain Regard category.

01:40And the following year, Asif Kapadia's short film The Sheep Thief won a Cine Foundation

01:46award.

01:47It was the Malayalam film Marana Simhasanam, which portrayed the life of a seasonal labourer

01:52who was accused of a murder that took place many years ago.

01:56The film won the Golden Camera award in 1999.

01:59But this was also around the time when some critics felt that the films that did well

02:04at international festivals like Cannes always portrayed India as a poor country.

02:10This wasn't a unanimous opinion, though.

02:13Critics argued that cinema should be allowed freedom of expression and that films probably

02:17resonated because they were truthful.

02:20In the year 2000, Arundhati Roy was invited to join the jury at Cannes.

02:24Two years later, Manish Shah's A Very Very Silent Film won the jury prize and Sanjay

02:29Leela Bansali's Devdas was screened at the festival.

02:33In 2003, Aishwarya, who was no stranger to the festival's red carpet, attended as a jury

02:38member.

02:39The first Tamil film to be screened at Cannes was Veyil.

02:42In 2006 and three years later, in 2009, veteran actor Sharmila Tagore joined the international

02:48jury.

02:49This was decades after her film Devi had screened at the festival in 1962.

02:54Filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor was also a jury member in 2010.

02:59Several other Indian films were screened at the festival over the next decade.

03:09In 2013, Amitabh Bachchan inaugurated the festival as part of the Great Gatsby team,

03:20while Vidya Balan and Nandita Das were on the jury.

03:24Not just that, The Lunchbox was part of International Critics Week and Ray's Charulota was part

03:30of the Cannes Classics line-up.

03:32In 2021, Payal Kapadia's A Night of Knowing Nothing won the Golden Eye for Best Documentary

03:39The following year, India was a country of honour at the festival, with several celebrities

03:45and films making an appearance.

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