Anurag Kashyap, the filmmaker known for backing independent cinema and artistry, said that India does not support the ‘Cannes kind’ of cinema and that the victory of independent filmmakers this year at the prestigious festival is theirs alone.
India won a bouquet of awards at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival last month with Payal Kapadia becoming the first ever director from India to win the Grand Prix for her movie "All We Imagine As Light". Anasuya Sengupta was awarded best actress in the Un Certain Regard strand for “The Shameless”, and FTII student Chidananda S Naik earned the best short film award at the La Cinef section for “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know”.
“I get very upset when it's said 'India@Cannes'. This is a boost… a shot in the arm for a lot of independent filmmakers but their victory is their own," Kashyap told PTI news agency. “India didn't have any moment at Cannes, not a single of those films is Indian. We need to address it the way it should be addressed. India has stopped supporting such cinema, the kind of cinema that was at Cannes,” he added.
'The Gangs of Wasseypur' director said several films at Cannes with India-set stories or Indian talent at the helm were co-productions with banners from other countries. For instance, Kapadia's Malayalam-Hindi feature was an Indo-French co-production between Petit Chaos from France and Chalk and Cheese Films from India.
"Stop taking credit for it. Let’s stop this fake celebration... Even if the film is released, no one will go to watch it in the theatre,” Kashyap told PTI. Citing an instance, he said that in 2021, Kapadia won an award at Cannes for the documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing”, which is yet to be released in India.
