India Pavilion opens at 67th Annual Cannes Film Festival

India Pavilion – a platform for stakeholders to market Films: Secretary, I&B India Film Guide released at the Inaugural Function

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting which is participating at the 67th Annual Cannes Film Festival today witnessed the release of India Film Guide at the Cannes Film Market, India Pavilion. Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, I&B, Shri Bimal Julka said the Resource guide endeavours to promote Indian cinema across linguistic, cultural and regional diversity, with the aim of forging an increasing number of international partnerships in the realm of distribution, production, filming in India, script development and technology, and promoting film sales and syndication. Elaborating further, Secretary mentioned that the initiatives such as Co-production and Single Window Clearance would facilitate integration of the Indian film-makers with production houses worldwide. The guide, the first of its kind to be released at Cannes aims to position India as a “Filming Destination”. Emphasizing on the importance of the audio-visual co-production agreements, Shri Julka said that the catalogue gave detailed information about similar co-production agreements signed with other countries so far such as UK, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Poland and New Zealand. Negotiations with Korea, Australia, China and Japan were being undertaken. He further added that it would be now possible for filmmakers of different countries to come together and make films under bi-lateral co-production agreements. Bringing different nationalities together, these arrangements would also forge new markets and wider audiences. Opening up Indian consumer market to foreign producers, these films would also be eligible for National Film Awards and Indian panorama Section of IFFI. During his address, Secretary also highlighted the recent initiatives in the Film sector pertaining to the National Museum of Indian Cinema, housed in a heritage building called Gulshan Mahal. This heritage site would act as a ready-reckoner of the history of Indian cinema showcasing technological aspects of production and screening of films, as well as its social aspects in the past century. Highlighting the importance of Indian cinematic history, Shri Julka mentioned that the Ministry of I & B was in the process of launching the National Film Heritage Mission(NFHM) to digitize best of Indian cinematic works and archive them for the future generations. The possibility of enhanced cooperation within the domain of film archiving in the backdrop of the National Film Heritage Mission would be one of the focus areas for interaction with foreign producers and organizations associated with the film industry at Cannes. The pavilion was inaugurated by Shri Bimal Julka, Secretary, I&B, Shri Arun K. Singh, India's Ambassador to France, cine star Kamal Haasan who is also the Chairman of FICCI Media and Entertainment Committee – South. Also present on the occasion were renowned director and producer Ramesh Sippy, Dr A. Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI; actor Uday Chopra and Jerome Paillard, Executive Director, Marche du Film Festival de Cannes. The inaugural address was followed by a discussion on “The Making of Grace of Monaco” - the opening film of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival - with crew members from the film. There will also be a special session on Titli, India's official entry to Cannes. Titled “The Journey to Cannes”, this session will feature Kanu Behl, the director of Titli; Avtar Panesar, Vice President, International Operations, Yash Raj Films; Guneet Monga, Founder, Sikhya Entertainment, and CEO, Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd; and Ranvir Shorey, one of the stars of Titli.