The 61st Annual Cannes Film festival 2008 was held May 14 through May 25, 2008. Like every year, the most prestigious and influential film festival showcased some of the biggest and most talked about films from all over the world. Since being a part of this grand affair provides filmmakers with the much sought after worldwide media attention, Cannes has become one of the most popular venues for filmmakers, film producers and distributors participating from all over the globe.
This year, along with a couple of the high-budget, glossy Bollywood films from India, a number of offbeat low-budget independent film production houses like iDreams Independent Pictures and Handmade Films participated, to market their classy and “non-mainstream” films extensively.
Among the films shopped by iDreams were Santosh Sivan’s Tahaan, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s The Voyeurs, Rajnesh Domalpalli’s Vanaja, Shivaji Chandrabhushan’s Frozen and US-based Sarab Singh Neelam’s Ocean of Pearls. These films, the filmmakers believe, have immense potential for traveling all across the globe and impressing a global audience. Some of them have already received recognition from all over the world. For example, Vanaja, a film about feudalism and the class struggle in rural Andhra Pradesh seen through the prism of a classical dance form, is set for commercial release in South Africa and has recently been sold in the Netherlands.
Handmade Films, which produced popular offbeat films like Mixed Doubles and Bheja Fry, brought a new bunch of unconventional films to Cannes, including Beware Dogs, a 45-minute documentary on the contemporary music group Indian Ocean. Their list of feature-length fiction films include Jaideep Varma’s comedy drama Hulla, Maneej Premnath’s thriller, The Waiting Room, Rupali Guha’s Aamras, and Bela Negi’s Driving Lessons. All these films have been directed by debut directors.
Apart from these, another Indian film which created some buzz is Ketan Mehta’s Rang Rasiya, based on the life of the legendary 19th-century Indian painter Raja Ravi Verma.
Meanwhile, India’s Reliance Big Entertainment, owned by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani and the media arm of the $100 billion conglomerate Reliance ADA Group, was launched at Cannes this year. The media group is all set to develop and co-produce films in Hollywood and has signed separate deals with George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, Nicholas Cage’s Saturn Productions, Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions, Jim Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment, as well as filmmakers Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures and Jay Roach’s Everyman Pictures to co-produce movies.
