The History of Cannes : Bollywood News

Cannes. The immediate image that comes to ones mind on reading this word is that of the International Film Festival hosted by the place. The name has become so synonymous with the film festival that many people aren’t even aware that Cannes is the name of a small town in France. The Cannes Film Festival hosted in the resort town of France has gained enormous popularity world over. Started with the aim “to encourage the development of all forms of cinematographic art and foster a spirit of collaboration between film-producing countries” by the French, the festival was started in 1932 and was held at Venice. However, World War II broke out and it was considered a failure. It was again revived in 1946 and conducted in the city of Cannes. Since then the festival has continued and flourished over the years. The film makers from all over the world today consider it to be a great honor if their films get selected for screening at this fest. The genuine appreciation of creative work at Cannes has given it a lot of “credibility” and added “leverage” to the festival.

After its re-launch in 1946, the film makers from all over the world started attending the fest that is held in the month of May every year. Films from every corner of the world started reaching Cannes making their presence felt. When so much was going on at Cannes, how can the biggest film making industry, the Indian Film Industry could stay away from the action? As a matter fact, Indian films were associated with Cannes festival from its early days. Some of the initial entries from India include films like V. Shantarams Amar Bhoopali, Bimal Roys Do Bigha Zamin (it won Prix Internationale in 1954), Raj Kapoors Awara, the Kapoor-produced Boot Polish (which won a special award for child actress Baby Naaz). All these films were played on the Cannes screen from 1951 onwards. The Indian film industry thus went on to declare that India is a newly independent country which is making the kind of cinema which deserves recognition and appreciation from the world. In 1956, Satyajit Rays masterpiece Pather Panchali was screened at Cannes. The film not only displayed the immense potential the Indian film industry held but also won the top prize at Cannes that year. After Pather Panchali however, Indian films seemed to go astray from the Cannes International Film Festival. However, some regional films like a Malayalam film Swaham (1994) and another film called Marana Simhasam (1999) happened to be the last entries into the Competition at Cannes. But there wasn’t much sound about Indian Cinema at Cannes until Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Devdas was screened at Cannes in 2002. Devdas was the first ever “popular” “commercial” Indian film to be screened at Cannes. The movie was selected for “out of the competition” screening, a special category in the Cannes Film Festival that allows screening films which though didn’t make it into the official competition, they had the potential and artistic value to be screened with equal respect at the festival. Devdas was a very vibrant colorful movie which had romance, music, dance and drama backed by mammoth sets that had Indian aesthetic designs.