There were umpteen number of reports appearing in the Indian media about the Bollywood stars all set to walk the red carpet at Cannes this year. Among the names mentioned were Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her daughter Aaradhya, Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Arjun Rampal, and others. However, they were invisible for the most important red carpet event, the opening night of the 65th Festival de Cannes, on Wednesday, 16th May 2012.
Aishwarya’s presence was sorely missed since she has been a Cannes regular and was a cynosure of all eyes at the last year’s edition of the Festival. The only Indian actor to have made her presence felt at the opening ceremony red carpet was Frieda Pinto but she hardly has anything to do with Bollywood.
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| AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN, SONAM KAPOOR and BIPASHA BASU |
However, Indian filmmakers, who prefer not to carry the Bollywood tag, are all set to make their presence felt at the festival with films like MISS LOVELY (Un Certain Regard), GANGS OF WASSEYPUR (Directors’ Fortnight) and PEDDLERS (Critics’ Week). Some of the Indian films will have their market premiere in Marche Du Film, including Yash Raj Film’s ISHAQZAADE, and Ultra’s JALPARI (THE DESERT MERMAID) by Nila Madhab Panda.
There will also be a special Cannes Directors’ Fortnight debate on ‘Multiplicities of Indian cinema – Bollywood: the tree obscuring the forest?’ that will be attended by Anurag Kashyap, Pierre Salvadori (SRF), Hubert Niogret (producer/film critic), Patrick Frater (journalist), Sunil Doshi, and Sudhir Mishra on Wednesday 23rd May, 2:30 pm.
(Rajesh Kumar Singh is Editorial Consultant for Festivals and Markets for BollywoodTrade.com. He is a filmmaker, critic and market analyst)
