celebrities at Cannes

New Delhi, May 12 (UNI) The whos who of the Indian entertainment industry will interact with a host of personalities from the World cinema at the Cannes film festival next week.

Renowned Indian filmmakers like Ronnie Screwvala, Bobby Bedi, Karan Johar, Ravi Chopra, Boney Kapoor, Sudhir Mishra, Dev Benegal, Vinta Nanda, Sunil Doshi, Manu Rewal and Suneel Darshan will rub shoulders with entertainment personalies from all over the world, including International delegates at Cannes, international stars, festival officials and members of the festival jury at a reception organised by the Film&Television Producers Guild of India at Cannes on May 19, guild sources told UNI.

Also present will be the 90s Bollywood diva Sridevi, Sushil Kumar Agrawal, Manish Goswami, Sunil Lulla, Dr Modi, Ashish Bhatnagar, Sunir Kheterpal, Vinod Kumar and representatives from Sahara, NFDC and Tips among others.

The event is aimed at providing a meeting ground for the Guild members and other Indian delegates present in Cannes with the international delegates.

Accordingly, the event will have eminent guild members, led by its president Amit Khanna, hold interactions with some select international delegates and other foreign dignitaries. The Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, S K Arora and the Director (Films) Vishvajit Sahay are also expected to attend the reception, the guild said.

It also plans to invite the festival jury, international stars, festival officials, Indian delegates and other movers and shakers to this event.

''The event will prove to be another landmark in Guild's constant pursuit of providing platforms for their members to interact with the entertainment personalies from all over the world,'' Guild sources said.

''This initiative by the Guild reaffirms its commitment to globalize the Indian entertainment industry. The Guild continues to leave no stone unturned in working towards the growth and progress of the Indian producers in the face of intense international competition,''they said.

As many as 65 Indian films will be screened at the Cannes film festival, scheduled from May 17 to 29 this year, as part of the festival's film market section. Over 80 companies and 18 exhibitors from India will showcase their product and projects at the India Pavilion.

Among the Indian films to be screened at the Indian market section at Cannes this year are Ali Larter, the Salman Khan-starrer 'Marigold', Rakyesh Mehra's 'Rang De Basanti', Jagmohan Mundra's 'Provoked', The Last Monk by Sudipto Sen, 'Mixed Doubles' by Rajat Kapur, 'Navarasa' (Nine Emotions ) by Santosh Sivan among others.

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