Influx of Indian Film-stars in Cannes better

Cannes, May 23: The influx of Indian film-stars in Cannes this year has been better than in the recent past.

Most of them came here for fleeting visits, depending on what their respective sponsors had dictated. Thus, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan spent a mere two days in Cannes. Preity Zinta, modelling for the French firm, Chopard, stayed longer, as did Irrfan Khan. Irrfan walked the red carpet with the cast of "A Mighty Heart" (his latest film), and also wore a watch for Chopard as its new brand-envoy. Amitabh Bachchan was one of the last to appear, having been invited by Eros Entertainment, the distributor for his recent movie, "Cheeni Kum", which was screened in the market-section.

The shortest stay in Cannes by far was by the duo, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, who arrrived one forenoon to plug their latest starrer, "Goal" produced by UTV. They, however, left for home the same afternoon.

One of the few to have stayed for long was Manisha Koirala.

More stars could have been expected this year, considering the fact that a special, seven film package termed as 'Focus India' was shown in the current festival. That, however, did not happen. Most of the directors whose films were shown, were new and young and did not possess the resources to get their casts over to Cannes. The makers of block-busters like "Yuva" and "Lage Raho Munnabhai", on the other hand, had no incentive to do so as the overseas rights of their films had already been sold well before the festival. That is why Abhi-Aish did not stay in Cannes till the screening of "Yuva', directed by Mani Rathnam (who himself was present).

It is good that Indian stars are coming in good number to what is widely acknowledged as the world's most important film festival. If they stay for a while, they can see good movies and also network better with the global cinema. However, the Indian film-industry has to devise various ways to see that the presence of their stars at Cannes is utilised in a more effective manner, from the point of view of making impact and for other positive results. In doing that, it can emulate Hollywood which has been doing this to a nicety, for a very long time.

UNI