Making India matter

Madhur Bhandarkar, who is at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival, says Indian filmmakers need to create cinema focusing on real and “earthy” subjects to have visible representation at such platforms. India has zero representation in terms of films at the competition categories of the Cannes Film Festival this year. At the India Pavilion of the gala, Bhandarkar engaged in a conversation with filmmaker Rahul Rawail around the current state of Indian cinema and the way forward. Bhandarkar, known for films like Page 3, Traffic Signal and Fashion, said, “It is unfortunate that there is no Indian cinema (here). They are looking for strong content... He (a festival official I met) told me the audience is very different here in Cannes, so they have to choose the best one. We need to have strong content like the cinema of (Satyajit) Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, which basically has the Cannes value... That is very necessary for a filmmaker. More and more people should go for content and subjects that are more real and earthy because they want to see that cinema over here... I think we have lacked that from the last six, seven years.” — IANS