Tongues started wagging when producer Sheetal Talwar, a couple of days ago, made a touch upon how India cinema has acquired a somewhat status of a joke on the annual Cannes Film Festival.
And he minced no words while adding that a tremendous amount of cash from the government’s exchequer is being wasted in the course of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) that may be in control of promoting Indian cinema globally.
Speaking exclusively to us, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who had recently toured the French town with three of his projects, retorts, “Sheetal Talwar has no clue about how a movie festival functions.
NFDC who funds the Indian Pavilion at Cannes was looking to change the perception of our cinema and have been especially successful at doing that this year. We had a variety of films from India this year.”
Talwar — a countrywide embarrassment? On reports about Talwar’s recent comments on how ‘not even a single gora was spotted within the party thrown by the Indian Pavilion’, Anurag adds, “Talwar’s name was not at the guest list. So, he was speaking out of jealousy.
Also, he won't discuss film festivals abroad as he have been the reason for the country’s biggest embarrassment on the Toronto International Film Festival. He was imagined to show Mausam there but on the last minute, he didn’t send the prints, on account of which TIFF organisers don’t need to see any commercial film from India again.”
A big entourage The filmmaker was also within the news for taking 45 people as a part of his entourage to Cannes this year. At the matter, Anurag quips, “The production company paid for them. I paid for several others including my assistants. I WISHED to reveal them to a wide variety of worldwide cinema.”
NFDC update Anurag adds, “NFDC is growing at the global platform. NFDC chairperson Nina Lath Gupta was at the jury of the Venice Film Festival two years ago.
In fact this very year people like ad filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur has tied up with Martin Scorsese to revive an Indian film called Kalpana and likewise some Alfred Hitchcock films. Also Martin Roberts of Amsterdam-based film company Binger Lab is ready to join NFDC to assist our films. That is what the government’s money was spent on.”
Courtesy: Mid-Day.com
