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STOP PRESS – Indian film in Cannes!
I was surprised the other day when I came upon a headline in the New Indian Express (Chennai edition dated Saturday May 17 2008 11:48 IST) which said ‘Cannes honour for Billa’.
It said “A year after Veyil, the Tamil movie directed by Vasantha Balan, was officially nominated to the Cannes Film Festival; yet another Tamil movie makes it to the Mecca of movie makers.” (Veyvil was in Cinema du Monde, a special side attraction at the festival last year)
Wow! that’s fantastic, I thought, it must have been a last minute addition as I had gone through the official list of this year’s selection and seen no sign of a film from India.
“A superhit film in India already, Billa will now earn international acclaim by being screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival as well. It will be screened on May 18” continued the article.
Hurrah! But I was soon to be disappointed; my zeal was crushed, when I read the rest of the article.
“Billa, however, will not be screened in the competing category. Instead, it will feature in the marketing section of the festival like most Indian films so far, where film-makers get the opportunity to show their film to a universal audience.”
But the ‘marketing section’ is not a section. It’s called the Marche du film (the film market) and one can buy a screening there; it just costs over 50,000 rupees to 120 000 rupees a show (download guidelines for screenings). It is held in the small preview theatres in the Palais du festival or local cinemas in the city.
I could even show my little niece’s 5th birthday party video there as long as I paid for it. There is no selection, leave alone any honour. Everyone does not have access to these screenings and only people with the Marche du film (market) badge can attend this and of course that is if they are interested. So much so for the ‘universal audience’.
So it was all a lie, like many Indian films (Provoked, Ghatokatch etc) paying to our wonderful ‘pay as you go’ newspapers to print any crap that is sent to them by the PR persons.
But there is a reason why the Billas and the Provokeds do these cheats. Festivals are not just places where one goes to boost one’s ego but a selection in an A-list festival like Cannes, Berlin or Venice have a definite effect on the career of the film and the filmmaker. It is also recognition of one’s talent by one’s peers. It is also a kind of validation of one’s art and style of cinema. It’s like a pehlwan boasting and telling people that he is now bigger than his pind’s akhada.
One must not confuse it with showcase festivals or region specific showcases, where selection is by default. It is always enjoyable to go these for the wine & the women, to feel big and important.
An Indian actress (friend) told me the other day “Arey yaar, no one in India cares for Cannes.” I really wonder if that’s true. One has to just count the amount of Indian film people that are in Cannes this year. One would think it’s the Filmfare awards.
And deep down inside, they would all like to be ‘In competition’, walk the red carpeted stairs of the Palais du festival, like the Pehlwan at the the the biggest akhada, like a gladiator at Circus Maximus !
But I guess to get there, we have to have the balls to make interesting films. The balls to stop - copying, ‘the inspired by’ and the ‘loosely based on’ crap. The balls to stop making films which are a ‘medley’ of shots and scenes from the films we like.
We have to start developing our original stories and we must tell them in our own special way.
Additional reading “Indian filmmakers going Global” on the BBC.
21 Responses to “STOP PRESS – Indian film in Cannes!”
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Thank you for explaining this PSji saheb. I’ve always wondered if the Indian media (in general) really knows that most of the Indian films they are going gaga about going to Cannes, is actually in the non-competitive section where as you’ve mentioned - are shown at a small theater, money for which is paid by the producer and attended by those who have the pass.
Another thing to note (that I’ve been told) is the mixing of the Indian filmmakers with their international counterparts does not happen. Most of the Indian filmmakers and production house people are huddled together and are either drinking tea or beer, while the rest of the International crowd is elsewhere. Someone needs to bring the actual facts out, but the journalists (from India) there too are sucked into whole grand Cannes thingy and the correct picture has not yet been portrayed so far back home.
@oz. One still has to be selected to even to go to a non competitive section in Cannes (i.e. Un Certain Regard or Hors (out of) Competition like Devdas was). The market is not a section. Anybody who has a professional film business can buy a pass to go there or a screening. Some Indians distribution companies (Yashraj, WEG, Eros) do a lot of business. But the rest are forced to huddle, the big international companies have had their schedule filled up a month before the festival.
I also hear that to get noticed..and mean really get noticed..one has to throw all those big yatch parties and et al…
I am sure the media knows about ” The Market”..but want to conviniently ignore it..coz nowadays who’s who of bollywood is at Cannes..as if that is the “only festival”…
As long as the mentality of this author’s Indian actress friend is there, Indian cinema will remain something simply for Indian local audiences and NRIs. It has so much potential and meaning in this society, now looking for escapist entertainment. But between the directors’ distrust for any foreign journalist wanting to interview them - I speak from VERY personal experiences - the filmmakers’ lack of momentum in submitting entries to various prestigious festivals and award and the idiotic questions typically asked any foreign viewer - such as “Do you understand the language?” despite the obvious subtitles clearly there for a reason! - the makers of Indian cinema have a long, long road ahead to become more “global”. I don’t believe they don’t want to, it’s more of a “if you really want me to do it, come to me” attitude.
Can any one tell me if there is anything called a “festival film”…I have been asked whether I make those types?
@ Shivajee
hey! there’s nothing like a ‘festival film’. The new Indiana Jones was at Cannes and so was the Da Vinci Code. Where they ‘festival films’?
This is only heard and said in India, like a lot of other stupidities. Most big festivals are a market place for buying and selling films. So if you make a film and it is selected, there are chances of selling the film, provided you do have a sales agent to look after the film.
No Shivajee, you make independent films and the only way you can sell your film is at a festival. The people who say things like that to you have no knowledge of the international film business.
PSji/Oz: This is the aspect I had tried to highlight in my piece on PFC, “India in Cannes”, a few weeks ago (followed up with another piece “India in Cannes-2″, updating the earlier one). That is why I had painstackingly gone through the Cannes website to scan out all Indian films officially part of the festival since its inception 61 years ago. Somebody else did even better research to also list out all the Indian jury members in Cannes, along with the Indian films in different sections, in a more organized way than me.
As a media person, I feel aghast that our brethren print/telecast any info doled out by the fawning PR companies without cross-checking or doing any homework/verification. Obviously, PR people get money for doing their job and they are not at all at fault for presenting a sugar-coated picture, but why should newspapers or channels blindly reproduce the stuff.
If you go to a website called http://www.cinando.com, you will get a huge list of Indian films in the Cannes market section. Don’t be surprised if makers of these films come back and claim that their films had been “screened” or “shown” in “Cannes” (technically, you cannot fault them, because - yes, they had been screened in the city of Cannes, even if not as an official part of the festival. And be sure, they will never tell you, or the media, that they actually bought space paying costly Euros at the market section.
And PSji, your actress friend’s comment is like the ones mouthed by some of our big filmy names regarding Oscars — everyone dreams of holding the Statuette or the Cannes Palm in hand someday in life, but when you ask them, they will say we make films for our people, and our films are different, and so then…. the relevant word here is “hypocrisy”. Yes, our films have a different idiom of storytelling mostly, but why should that excuse be used to justify why Indian films don’t get into festivals abroad, or why only particular type of films get selected. If Cannes has shown the so-called arty stuff from India, it has also shown “Devdas”, and nothing can be more Bollywoodish than it. And go through the Cannes official selections lists, you will find a lot of mainstream Hollywood films too.
Shivajee: Like “Art films”, I think even this term “Festival film” is a coinage by the media. I guess if your film gets screened in a number of festivals but does not get a release, you get stuck with that label… no matter even if 95 per cent of the so-called mainstream films that get released sink out of sight because of their infantile themes and treatment.
@PS
@Utpal
thanks…
@ Utpal
Well said. I had read your article India in Cannes 1 & 2. I hope the press will become a wee bit responsible towards what they print.
my 2 cents: every year, Indian producers and distributors, no matter what films they have (”festival” films, “commercial”), are holding back on sending IFFLA their film, hoping to be in Cannes, yet getting rejected, year after year, and loosing out on having their premiere in LA at ArcLight Hollywood. They also tend to confuse the Cannes FESTIVAL with the Cannes MARKET that does not require ANY premiere status, and it is not part of the FESTIVAL. wake up people!
PSji,
I think you are grossly mistaken when you say that there are no such things as “festival films” … Maybe not in India but movies that are made for and released only in ARTHOUSE theaters are referred to as such.
Even experimental films fall under that category … Movies like Grace is Gone , Rails and Ties (Alison Eastwood’s excellent film) et.c belong to that category …
A little bit more of research before you spruce out “knowledge” top the others … in your usual over confident know it all demeanor …
This site has a lot of good articles but the writing is either too “Indian” / “Vernacular” or the tone is just too “cocky” to complete … You criticize a lot , especially your own movies … To be honest, what have most of you critics accomplished ?
As a filmmaker and outsider , I personally prefer the movies from the southern part of India more because of its content and structure along with the technical superiority, like most of you rightfully put it Indian movies are years behind the rest , still rehashing the same formula for the past few decades.
But still , its another man’s hard work , to ridicule it , is easy … Why don’t you become the change that you people keep talking about like Gandhi put it !
I just read (http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/009200805230340.htm) that NFDC is promoting some of its films at Cannes this year.
One of the films that they are promoting is Malayalam film Manjadikuru (Lucky Red Seeds) by Anjali Menon.
Many months Anjali Menon she left a nice long comment on one of my one of old (rant) post . At that time i had no idea who she was.
This is her movie blog:
http://luckyredseeds.blogspot.com/
Maybe, someone can get in touch with her to write about her movie here.
Thats all very well but whatever happened to the great Hollywood tie-up between Anurag Kashyap and some truly top notch producers and megastars?
Well written Christina!!! IFFLA rocks and it was such a great experience for watching wonderful films in the right “light”. On the gigantic screens of the ArcLight Hollywood!
PSji
Congratulations on your promotion on PFC. Now we have a foto of our long hair.
This “Screened at Cannes” thing was started by Bansali I think with his Devdas. I remember a 30 min interview by NDTV on the beach also.
Shivaajee did your film get rejected at Cannes? Why is it not there?
@mainak
Thnx bro. Life is struggle for me. I have to work harder than most to get my just desserts ;)
But you are wrong about Bhansali. DEVDAS was in the official selection of the Cannes film festival 2002, but it was in the ‘Hors Competition’(out of Competition) selection.
Thanks for correcting me
Its 3:30 am & I was too lazy to research.
Apologies.
So true Partho da! :) Its both sad and funny to see what some film makers (and newspapers too!) will do to get ‘mileage’.
By the way, I do hope you got my email about the screening dates. I sent you another one yesterday.
@Mainak
They wanted it last year but I hadn’t had the money to complete the post.That is why I couldn’t come to IFFLA 2007 also. Cannes is very strict about European Premiere and by this year Frozen has played at Greece,Italy,Turkey,France,Belgium etc.
Though my International Sales Agents had it screened in the market.
Shivajee..i am sure you must have given this a thought and worked for it too…but, how about releasing Frozen in European market? somthing like what Pan Nalin did with Ayurveda and henceforth..
@OM,
Well as on date Frozen is with atleast 50 European distributors.Screening at Cannes Market and winning few awards did help us.I think by July we would get some good news,Inshaallah.