The 75th Festival de Cannes, or Cannes Film Festival, has unveiled actor Deepika Padukone as part of its 9-member jury for the festival that will start on May 17 in the chic resort town on the French Riviera.
In a press release, the festival organizers describe Padukone as an “actress, producer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur”, who has over 30 films to her credit. She had made her Hollywood debut in the film, ‘xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’, co-starring Vin Diesel.
Apart from Deepika, other members joining the jury this year include actresses Rebecca Hall and Noomi Rapace, filmmakers Jasmine Trinca from Italy, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, Ladj Ly from France, Jeff Nichols from the United States, and Joachim Trier from Norway. French actor Vincent Lindon will preside over the Cannes Film Festival`s jury as the president this year.
Before Padukone, a few other Indian film personalities served as jury members of Cannes. Way back in 1950, filmmaker Chetan Anand was invited to be part of the festival jury, but he declined, saying he did not feel qualified enough to be part of ‘such an enlightened panel’.
In 1982, noted filmmaker Mrinal Sen became the first Indian to serve as a jury member. He was followed by Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair in 1990 and writer Arundhati Roy was part of the jury in 2000.
In 2003, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan became the first Indian actress to be a jury member and she was followed by actor-director Nandita Das in 2005. She was followed by veteran actor Sharmila Tagore in 2009 and in the following year, filmmaker and actor Shekhar Kapur was on jury duty. Most recently, actor Vidya Balan was a member of the Festival de Cannes jury in 2013.
