The India Pavilion at the 76th Cannes Film Festival was inaugurated on Wednesday by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan. Sara Ali Khan, Khushbu Sundar, Madhur Bhandarkar, Vijay Varma, Manushi Chillar and Esha Gupta were also present for the occasion and they posed together for pictures too. Some snaps from the inauguration ceremony were shared on Twitter by the official handle of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry).
According to reports, Murugan emphasised India's ‘timeless tradition of storytelling’ at the event, adding that it is gradually being accepted internationally. He was quoted as saying, “You will not find too many Hollywood films these days that do not have names of Indians in the credits, especially in the VFX and animation departments.”
According to sources, the politician also said that the foundations of ‘our creative economy’ are so strong that ‘India is well placed to become the world’s leading content creator’.
Guillaume Esmiol, the executive director of the Cannes Marche du Film agreed that Indian cinema was becoming more and more integrated with the international film industry, making the nation crucial to the festival.
Jawed Ashraf, India’s ambassador to France and the Principality of Monaco stated in his keynote address, “Cinema is intricately, and inextricably, linked to the lives of the people of India. Our movie industry is doing a job that diplomats are meant to do: making the world dance to India’s tune.”
Sara also spoke at the event stating that Cinema and art transcends language, regions, and nationalities. “I think as a nation maybe we are not doing enough, and we should be even more proud and vocal of the culture that we do have, that we should be able to bring to the rest of the world. Cinema and art transcends language, regions, nationalities,” she was quoted as saying.