Indian Stars in Cannes to Dispel Bollywood Image

Stars of Indian cinema are at the Cannes film festival to show that their industry, which turns 100 this year, is more than just Bollywood.

Published

11 months ago

Categories

Entertainment

Topics

Movies

People

Amitabh Bachchan, Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashwap

Places

France, India, Cannes

Transcript

The stars of Indian cinema... .. Bringing a touch of Bollywood to the South of France... .. And, a whole lot more.. When you think of Indian cinema, you don't traditionally think of gun chases.... As a guest country at the Cannes film festival this year, India's heavy hitters, old and new, want to show the world they have more to offer than just song and dance. (SOT) DIRECTOR, ANURAG KASHWAP SAYING: "Our main stream cinema which everyone calls bollywood is redefining itself, is becoming more routed, more real, where we have more independent films being made, more edgier films being made, all sorts of cinema co-exist today" Acting legend Amitabh Bachchan kicked off India's high profile presence at Cannes' opening night for his role in Baz Lurhmann's "The Great Gatsby".. -- Just the start of India's French splash.. As well as Bombay Talkies -- celebrating India's love of their film industry, three other Indian films will be screened at this year's festival including thriller "Monsoon Shootout".. The hope is India's high profile presence in Cannes will help Indian cinema boost its presence on the international stage. And India's contingency also wants to attract more foreign investment to their industry, which is set to hit the 5 bln dollar mark next year. But while India cinema has come a long way.. Battling with its own censorship issues threatens to curb its progression: (SOT) DIRECTOR DIBAKAR BANERJEE SAYING: "A few days ago there was a HUGE debate about what the censors in India can get away with or not get away with, how much they can prescribe, Indians ourselves, the film makers and the audience are discussing, so much so that the censor board of India actually did a festival about all the films they cut, so there's a huge exciting debate going on about how we see our own cinema" While it is evolving .. Bollywood is still making a song and dance in the movie industry in more way than one .. No doubt movie investors and critics alike will all be wondering where Indian cinema will be when it celebrates its 200th anniversary.