Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur addressed the India Forum at the famous Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Representing a 6000-year-old culture and 1.3 billion people the Minister delivered his keynote address in front of an audience comprising foreign and Indian filmmakers, journalists and delegates. He asserted that India’s cinematic excellence the world over is set to manifest the country into the ‘content hub of the world.
This year marks the 75th year of celebration of both the Cannes Film Festival and the establishment of India-France diplomatic relations. Speaking on the importance of Cannes the Minister said that over the years, ‘Festival de Cannes’ has played a significant role in strengthening Indo-French relations. The Minister noted historic highs of Indian cinema and said that Indian content has been ruling the hearts and minds of the global audience and the stepping stone was laid by bestowing the Palme d’Or to the prolific Indian filmmaker Chetan Anand’s film Neecha Nagar in 1946 and a decade later in 1956, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali won the Palme d’Or.
Speaking on India’s current presence in Cannes the Minister said “India intends to give you – the global audience, a flavour of the country’s cinematic excellence, technological prowess, rich culture and illustrious heritage of storytelling”, the Minister further added.
The Minister informed the audience of the various measures by both Union and State governments and said while the Center has envisioned major initiatives over the last 8 years to boost co-productions, film shoots and film facilitations in India, States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have formulated their own film facilitation policies and provided co-production opportunities. He stated that these efforts aimed at boosting India’s media and entertainment ecosystem, which is expected to generate USD 53 billion annually by 2025.
Shekhar Kapur spoke about the effect of access to cheap broadband and mobile devices having a disruptive effect on the movie industry and said that India is about to become the world’s biggest ‘influencer economy’ and that cinema will soon be redefined by the young film makers.
