Indian pavilion at Cannes lacks star power

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

CANNES, MAY 12. India has a pavilion on the beach at Cannes. For the first time in the history of the International film festival, now into its fourth day here, the Indian enclosure calls itself ``India Pavilion'' with the country's flag flying atop the tent. All along, the pavilion, rather the stall in the market, had represented the National Film Development Corporation of India.

The NFDC is of course a part of the India Pavilion, which, though, this year seeks to broaden its activities. What precisely they will be is not very clear, but for starters, the pavilion, put up at a huge cost, will be formally inaugurated by India's Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, on Monday. If one's memory serves right, no Indian Minister has visited the festival in a very long time. The inauguration will be followed by a reception later in the day at a five-star hotel.

However, despite what seems like a desperate bid to placate the Indian film industry, the India Pavilion may not ultimately attract the big stars and directors from back home. At the pavilion, there has been only muted response to questions on the Indian film industry's participation.

In any case, the idea of the pavilion was mooted just a few weeks ago, a notice absolutely inadequate for Indian stars to try and rework their schedules to fit in Cannes.

It will, of course, do a world of good to Indian cinema if some of the popular actors, actresses and directors do manage to come to Cannes this year, when the country's presence in the official sections of the festival is limited to a single entry, Mr. Murali Nair's ``A dog's day'' in Malayalam. Mr. Nair seems to have become a favourite here. His earlier work, ``The throne of death'' was screened in 1999, along with Mr. Shaji Karun's ``Vanaprastham''.

India's presence or participation at Cannes has been unsatisfactory over the years, an appalling feature, given the country's huge production of about 600 to 700 movies a year, the largest in the world.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Gilles Jacob, president of the festival, told this correspondent that the problem he faced when trying to select Indian movies was the almost total lack of information. ``How do you expect me, sitting thousands of miles away in Paris, to keep track of what is going on in India,'' he had asked.

This indeed is the crux of the problem, with even some of the better known Indian directors making little attempt to promote their stuff in places such as Cannes. This year, for instance, Mr. R. Sharath, whose first film, ``Twilight'', won many Kerala awards, including the one for the best work, reportedly failed to send the cassette of his movie in time for the Cannes selection. That movie which probably had a fair chance of being included in the festival, should have missed out being here by sheer default speaks volumes for the kind of attention Indian directors/producers pay to what is certainly the top global festival.

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