With an entry in almost every major section of the 77th Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on Tuesday evening with French musician-filmmaker Quentin Dupieux's Le Deuxieme Acte (The Second Act), India will have no dearth of action during the 12-day event.
Never before in history have Cannes and its sidebars found space for eight Indian, or India-themed, films. As many as six of these will be in contention for awards.
So, when the festival winds down on May 24 and 25, the media contingent from the world's largest film-producing nation might, fingers crossed, have plenty to write home about.
Indian cinema's previous best at Cannes was in 2013, when it sent five films to various sections: Monsoon Shootout (Midnight Screening), Bombay Talkies (a special screening to mark 100 years since Dada Saheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra), Ugly (Directors' Fortnight), The Lunchbox (Critics' Week) and Charulata (Cannes Classics).
In 2012, too, India had a substantial presence in Cannes with Miss Lovely (Un Certain Regard), Gangs of Wasseypur (Parts 1 & 2), Peddlers (Critics' Week), and Kalpana (Cannes Classics). But for many years before and since, the pickings have been dishearteningly slender.
One notable aspect of the Indian films at Cannes this year is that they are all either helmed by female directors or are women-centric, with the exception of one. In what could herald a new era, these films, made by directors endowed with sensibilities and approaches entirely their own, have shaken off the shadow of the gangster genre.
Leading the Indian charge at Cannes 2024 is Payal Kapadia's India-French-Dutch co-production All We Imagine as Light, a film in Malayalam and Hindi. It competes for the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, and is the first Indian film to do so in three decades.
A still from All We Imagine as Light
Kapadia will have to beat off, among others, Paolo Sorrentino, David Cronenberg, Andrea Arnold, Kirill Serebrennikov, Paul Schrader, and Yorgos Lanthimos. Jia Zhangke and two previous Palme d'Or winners, Francis Ford Coppola (who won for The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, both in the 1970s) and Jacques Audiard (for Dheepan, 2015).
Indian-British filmmaker Sandhya Suri's Santosh and Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov's The Shameless, in which Nepal stands in for India, are in the running for awards in the Un Certain Regard section.
FTII alumnus Chidananda S Naik's Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know… is in the La Cinef competition for film school entries. Mysore-based Naik is a qualified doctor.
A still from Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know
After graduating from medical college, he practised for some time before enrolling in a one-year course in the television wing of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Sunflowers… was Naik's final television film at the institute.
La Cinef has Indian filmmaker Mansi Maheshwari representing the UK. The Meerut-born animation director is in the line-up with Bunnyhood, a self-reflexive graduation film made at the National Film and Television School (NFTS), London.
Maheshwari studied knitwear design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi, and developed an interest in stop-motion animation. During the Covid lockdown, she made a bunch of animated shorts of varying lengths. She is a 2024 NFTS graduate.
Karan Kandhari's Sister Midnight, an India-British noir drama starring Radhika Apte, is in the Directors' Fortnight selection. The film will vie for the newly introduced Quinzaine des Cineastes People's Choice Award.
Kapadia's FTII batchmate, Maisam Ali, a Ladakh native born in Iran, is the first-ever Indian filmmaker to break into ACID Cannes. His debut feature, In Retreat, has been picked for the parallel section devoted to independent cinema.
In Retreat is an austere meditation on the notion of home conducted through the minimalistic story of a man who, in his 50s, returns to Leh after a long absence and baulks at the idea of reconnecting with the place he drifted away from many years ago.
In the Cannes Film Festival's inaugural edition of the Immersive Competition, a title with an India connection is one of eight selected VR (virtual reality) projects: Maya: The Birth of a Superhero, a British work crafted by multidisciplinary artist-activist Paulomi Basu and her longtime collaborator C J Clarke.
Rounding off India's presence in Cannes this year is a 4K restored version of Shyam Benegal's 1976 crowdfunded film Manthan.
Written by the director in collaboration with playwright Vijay Tendulkar and shot by Govind Nihalani, the film is in Cannes Classics. Manthan, which throws light on the pioneering milk cooperative movement spearheaded by Verghese Kurien, has been restored under the aegis of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), Prasad Corporation, Chennai, and L'Immagine Ritrovata Bologna.
The Cannes Film Festival will conclude on May 25.
Rahul’s casual dismissal of that controversy has added fuel to the fire
Rahul Bhatt sparks controversy over 'insensitive' remarks about sisters Alia and Pooja Bhatt
Rahul Bhatt, fitness trainer and son of veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, has found himself at the centre of a social media storm following controversial remarks about his half-sister, Alia Bhatt. In a recent interview, Rahul drew comparisons between Alia and their older sister Pooja Bhatt, calling the latter more talented, attractive, and principled.
The comments, which many have labelled inappropriate and insensitive, have sparked widespread criticism online. During the interview, Rahul stated, “In my opinion, she (Alia) is not even half of what my real sister Pooja is. Not in talent, not in looks, not in terms of being sexy. In front of my sister, she is ‘paani kam chai’ (watery tea). Amongst the siblings, the most talented and the most moralistic is Pooja.”
Social media users reacted strongly, questioning why Rahul would compare his sisters in such personal terms. Several users were particularly disturbed by his reference to their appearance and sex appeal, pointing out that such comparisons within a family cross boundaries of propriety. One comment read, “This is disturbing. Why talk about your sisters like that? It’s not just weird, it’s wrong.” Another post said, “There’s nothing respectful about comparing your siblings’ attractiveness in public.”
The backlash also reignited conversation around a decades-old controversy involving Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt. Rahul was asked about the infamous 1990s magazine cover where the father-daughter duo shared a kiss, which had stirred public outrage at the time. Dismissing the criticism, Rahul said, “It doesn’t make any difference. It’s like water off a duck’s back. We know the truth, and we’ve seen everything since childhood.”
Rahul’s casual dismissal of that controversy has added fuel to the fire, with critics saying it reflects a broader issue of the Bhatt family being insensitive to public perception and boundaries. Many users questioned the need for bringing up old incidents in a bid to defend new and equally questionable statements.
As of now, neither Alia Bhatt nor Pooja Bhatt has issued any public response to Rahul’s remarks. Both actors, known for their significant contributions to Indian cinema, have typically kept family matters private despite living in the public eye.
This episode has also sparked debate over the role of public figures in maintaining respect when discussing family matters in the media. Observers say such comments, especially when involving women’s appearance and personal qualities, reinforce problematic attitudes and fuel unnecessary controversies.
While Rahul Bhatt is not as prominent in the entertainment industry as his father or sisters, his comments have made headlines and placed the Bhatt family in the spotlight for reasons beyond their creative work. For many, this serves as a reminder that public platforms come with responsibility, and that family ties should not be trivialised or dissected for attention or comparison.
The backlash is unlikely to subside soon, especially as fans and followers of Alia and Pooja continue to express disappointment over the way the situation has unfolded. Whether or not Rahul chooses to clarify or apologise remains to be seen.