Kamal Haasan is back from the Cannes Film Festival with renewed vigour to break new boundaries and reach out to a global audience.
The actor and film-maker, who led the Indian delegation to the ongoing international film festival in the French city, lauded the ministry of information and broadcasting and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for setting up the Indian pavilion in such a way that it became “a hub for networking”.
“It is important that the film-makers of today find the right people to connect with,” he said in a statement issued on Monday. “And so it is a great initiative on part of the ministry of I&B and FICCI to develop the programme of India Pavilion in such a way that many important international names in the film business have been coming to the pavilion.”
The actor also took the opportunity to appreciate the new breed of film-makers who take the risk of straying away from mainstream formula. In his statement, he recalled that during the course of a session on ‘Co-production: Merging resources to create magic’— where the panellists included information and broadcasting ministry secretary Bimal Julka, New Zealand Film Commission CEO Dave Gibson, Telefilm Canada executive director Carolle Brabant and Film France deputy director Franck Priot — Mr. Haasan had noted that co-production treaties allowed film-makers today opportunities that were unthinkable a decade or two ago.
To a question as to why Indians had not cracked the competition section at Cannes and won the coveted Palme D’Or yet, he answered: “The problem is that we are a self-sufficient nation.” He urged Indian film-makers to stop being satisfied with the familiarity and safety of local markets and start taking risks, so that India could produce global content appreciated across the world.
