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I & B minister Anurag Thakur meets Shivani Pandya, Red International Film Festival MD, at Cannes

Festival de Cannes: Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who is leading the Indian delegation at Cannes Film Festival, on Wednesday met Shivani Pandya, Managing Director at the Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi Arabia.


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Anurag Thakur and Shivani Pandya, Red International Film Festival MD, at Cannes 2022/ AFP


The Information and Broadcasting Minister has a packed schedule on the second day of Cannes Film Festival. The minister is also scheduled to meet Jerome Paillard and Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Directors of The Marche Du Film, to explore further business partnerships with India.

The minister on Tuesday led the largest-ever Indian official delegation of eleven celebrities walking together on the inaugural event at Cannes Film Festival.

Mame Khan became the first ever folk artist to open a Red Carpet for Indian contingent. The festival is special this year for its celebration of Indian cinema's prowess as India is the first-ever official Country of Honour at Marche du Film. India is also a 'Country of Honour' at the Cannes Next, under which five new startups would be given an opportunity to pitch to the audio-visual Industry.



I&B Minister Anurag Thakur meets MPA chairman, pitches for 75 Indian creative minds enhancing skills

Festival de Cannes: Cannes: I&B Minister Anurag Thakur meets MPA chairman, pitches for 75 Indian creative minds enhancing skills with American studios


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Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur and Charles H. Rivkin, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Motion Pictures Association of America (ANI)


Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who is leading the Indian delegation to Cannes Film Festival 2022, on Tuesday met Charles H Rivkin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Motion Picture Association of America (MPA).

The meeting, which happened on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, lasted for nearly an hour. The minister pitched for 75 Indian creative minds enhancing skills with MPA, which represents major US film studios. Anurag Thakur exclusively told ANI that the government is keen to make India the content hub of the world and he spoke of the concerned issues with Rivkin. "We spoke on three major issues at this meeting.

We are looking at making India the content hub of the world. Also, we would like to see if maximum content can be created out of India whether it is shooting post-production, scripting and special effects," the minister told ANI. "We are also working on having more and more business to business associations with MPA Just like we had done at IFFI last year, we are now pitching the idea that 75 Young creative minds would get more and more exposure with MPA whether it is creative teams or start-ups for enhancing their scripting and other creative skills," he added.

Rivkin termed the meeting with the union minister as extremely productive. "This is the first time that such a proposal has been made and I will speak to the MPA and I hope more can be done to take our association forward," Rivkin told ANI. India has been named a "country of honour" at Cannes this year. "We are overwhelmed with the opportunities in the Indian market. And all our six member studios are looking forward to this deeper association.

Our member studios are already making a lot of films in India but we are looking at exploring more opportunities and possible co-productions and take this association further so that it benefits both countries," said Rivkin, who leads the MPA's global mission to advance and support the film, television, and streaming content industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed happiness on India's participation as 'Country of Honour' at the Cannes Film festival this year. In a message, he noted that India's participation comes at the momentous meeting of celebration of 75 years of India's independence, 75th anniversary of Cannes Film Festival and 75 years of diplomatic relations between India and France.

Emphasising India's commitment to improve ease of doing business in the film sector, PM Modi said that from facilitating international film-coproduction to ensuring single window clearance mechanism for permissions for filming across the country, India offers seamless possibilities to filmmakers of the world. This government had last year taken a novel initiative under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to encourage and recognise young creative minds and budding talents in the country.

For the first time ever, 75 creative minds representing gen next cinema were picked to attend the 52nd International Film Festival of India in Goa.


R Madhavan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui led by I&B Minister Anurag Thakur attend Red Carpet Cannes 2022

Festival de Cannes: The opening ceremony of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival commenced on Tuesday as Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur led the star-studded Indian delegation on the Red Carpet at Palais des Festivals.


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The glamorous red carpet contingent along with the Union Minister included R Madhavan, Ricky Kej, Vani Tripathi, Prasoon Joshi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Shekhar Kapur. While Madhavan and Nawazuddin opted for black tuxedos, Ricky, Prasoon and Anurag could be seen dressed in bandhgala suits of blue, black and cream colours respectively. Vani wore a beautiful blue saree and Shekhar donned a white kurta with a Nehru jacket.

Apart from these Nayanthara, Pooja Hegde, Tamannaah Bhatia and folk singer Mame Khan are also a part of the Indian delegation led by the Information and Broadcasting Minister. Actor Akshay Kumar too was part of the official delegation but had to opt-out after he tested positive for COVID-19. Earlier, Bollywood diva Deepika Padukone who is currently creating waves at Cannes Film Festival as a jury member attended the red carpet ceremony wearing a saree designed by Sabyasachi.

At the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival India has been named the 'Country of Honour' at the Marche du Film, the business counterpart of the marquee event.


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