All You Need to Know About the Indian Contingent at the Marche’ du Films at Cannes Film Festival 2022

Find out how Oscar and Grammy winning singer and musician A R Rahman is all poised to make his directorial debut.

18 May, 2022
All You Need to Know About the Indian Contingent at the Marche’ du Films at Cannes Film Festival 2022

The 75th Cannes Film Festival seems to be abuzz with a special energy as India becomes the first ever country to be honoured at the Marché du Film, which is the business counterpart of the Cannes Film Festival. Undoubtedly one of the largest film markets in the world, it was established in 1959, and is held in conjunction with the Festival de Cannes each year. And yes, while our very lovely Ms Padukone is part of the eight-member competition jury, who will select the winners of this year’s Palme d’Or honors, the spotlight that has been turned onto Indian cinema and its vast diversity is certainly the highlight of Cannes Film Festival this time around for us.

Deepika Padukone

Deepika Padukone posing with the other members of jury at the 75th Festival de Cannes, wearing an ensemble from Sabyasachi’s Tropic of Calcutta collection

The Indian delegation is being headed by Indian Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister, Anurag Thakur, and consists of others like filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, musician A R Rahman, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, actor-filmmaker R Madhavan, and actors Tamannaah Bhatia, Vani Tripathi, and Pooja Hegde. Folk artist Mame Khan from Rajasthan is an interesting but imperative addition to the delegation, as he has done playback for numerous Hindi films such as Luck By Chance, I Am, No One Killed Jessica, Mirzya, and Sonchiriya.

poster of Le Musk

Poster of Le Musk

There is a lot of excitement around musician extraordinaire, A R Rahman’s directorial debut—Le Musk. This amalgamation of art and technology promises to be a sensorial delight, with the audience getting to experience scent, motion, and music in cinema like never before. This 36-minute film stars actors Nora Arnezeder and Guy Burnet in the lead roles and is about the arduous journey of an orphaned woman who loses her riches and makes music her mission for life.

The Indian delegation at the Marché du Film

A glimpse of the Indian contingent consisting of Anurag Thakur, Shekhar Kapur, A R Rahman, Prasoon Joshi, R Madhavan, and Mame Khan

The I&B Ministry also handpicked six films for screening at the Cannes Film Market, to showcase Indian cinema’s contemporary best. Even though these films are not competing in any of the categories of the 75th Cannes Film Festival, they include R Madhavan’s trilingual film, Rocketry The Nambi Effect, amongst others like Marathi film Godavari, Achal Mishra’s Maithili film Dhuin, Hindi film Alpha Beta Gamma, Biswajeet Bora's Assamese Boomba Ride, and Malayalam film Niraye Thathakalulla Maram.

Poster of Rocketry The Nambi Effect

Poster of Rocketry The Nambi Effect 

Rocketry The Nambi Effect marks R Madhavan’s directorial debut too, as he had to take over after Ananth Mahadevan left the project. The film is based on the real life story of Nambi Narayanan, an earnest scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation who was falsely accused of espionage. The film is all set for its world premiere at Festival de Cannes on May 19th and here’s wishing all the cast and crew all the very best!

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