(Clockwise from left) Nina Davuluri, Samir Banerjee, Gajendra Chauhan, Anasuya Sengupta, Payal Kapadia and Anurag Kashyap.
Yes, we are Cannes. This was the sentiment that prevailed after India’s historic performance at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Every year, the coverage of Cannes in India follows a certain formula. First comes a plethora of pictures of Indian celebrities and semi-celebrities posing on the red carpet and then there are a flurry of reports on their outfits.
Then, there was a flurry of finger-pointing articles lamenting the fact that no red carpet baggers were there to promote the actual films, that the world’s biggest film industry had yet again produced nothing that could be considered Cannes-worthy.
Finally, someone has shared an old photo of Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Shyam Benegal taken at Cannes, when Benegal’s Nishant (1975) was nominated for the Palme d’Or award and everyone remembers the long-lost good old art-film days.
This year India broke this misfortune.Nishant‘ happened when Payal Kapadia won the Grand Prix for her film We all imagine ourselves as lightand Anasuya Sengupta won the Un Certain Regard Best Actress award shamelessAfter this, there was widespread joy and celebration on social media from Prime Minister Modi to Bollywood stars and former FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan.
But as many pointed out, it was a bit ironic for Chouhan to take pride in the fact that he was the chairman when (Kapadia) was pursuing a course there, while Kapadia is still battling legal cases stemming from his involvement in months-long protests against his appointment.
Filmmaker Payal Kapadia (centre) with the cast of her Grand Prix-winning film ‘All We Imagine as Light’ at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Taste of success
However, Chauhan was an easy victim of hypocrisy, it was a way to divert attention from all of us. As filmmaker Anurag Kashyap said in an interview, India did not support these films. These “Indian” films were actually French productions or self-financed or financed by the UK Film Lottery Fund. Even the Indo-French productions are yet to receive their promised government exemptions. Kashyap said director Konstantin Bozanov shamelessstruggled for 10 years to get the film made and chose art director Sengupta as his lead after getting no interest from better actors. And the truth is, most Indians didn’t even know these films existed before they won awards. We were too busy Googling influencer Nancy Tyagi and her DIY red-carpet outfits.
Actors Omara Shetty and Anasuya Sengupta with director Konstantin Bozhanov (centre) during the photocall for their film ‘The Shameless’ at Cannes 2024. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
But while failure is an orphan, success has many mothers. Many Indians, especially the bigwigs, are patting themselves on the back for their Cannes success. It’s proof positive of India’s rising global star. But Cannes is just the latest example of an old phenomenon. Indians often boast about homegrown entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, ignoring the harsh reality that many of those super-achievers moved to the US because they felt stymied and stifled in India.
When 17-year-old Samir Banerjee won the Wimbledon boys championship in 2021, an Assamese television channel called it a “proud moment for the Northeast” because his grandfather was a general manager at an oil company in Assam in the 80s. Samir himself was actually American, the son of Indian immigrants, an inconvenient fact that was sidelined in the excitement.
When Nina Davuluri faced some abuse after winning the Miss America title in 2014, a newspaper in India said, “Racist comments spoil Indian girl’s Miss America moment.” Davuluri had already clearly stated that she considered herself “first and foremost an American” from Syracuse, New York and Oklahoma. No matter. Indians were ready to claim her success as their own achievement.
We did not support them
But these were just scattered threads of DNA pride and were mostly confined to critical questions asked by the media such as: ‘Do you like Indian food?’, ‘Do you watch Bollywood movies?’, ‘Who is your favourite movie star?’. It was a way of claiming our little corner in their global success story.
The celebrations at Cannes are even more wrong. As Kashyap and others have pointed out, these achievements belong only to these indie filmmakers and actors. They went through a lot of hardships to make the film. They did not have the support of all the people who are now coming forward to congratulate them. None of these people were supporting them.
Will her success make it easier for the next Payal Kapadia to make a different kind of film? Will another Anasuya Sengupta be able to grab the attention of filmmakers despite not having the looks of a conventional film heroine? Indie films will always occupy a niche, but will that niche get ‘uncertain respect’ in India, without any extra charge? Chappa Has any foreign award been introduced to attract the attention of Indians?
And when that film is released (and gets an afternoon or late night slot), will we go to the multiplex to see it? If it gets a slot at all. Oscar-nominated documentary all that breatheswhich won an award at Cannes in 2022, was never released in cinemas.
Perhaps, this moment in Cannes is not just an occasion for celebration, but also a moment for introspection.
The author is the writer of ‘Don’t Let Him Know’ and loves to make his opinions known to everyone, whether he is asked or not.
