One of the biggest and grandest annual global festivals has started, as you guessed, it is the 76th Cannes Film Festival or Le Festival de Cannes in French. Last year, India stood as the country of Honour and this year India has no less to give at the French Riviera.
This year, the Indian Contingent will be representing India’s Cultural heritage and diversity and will be led by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, L. Murugan who will be wearing the traditional dress of Tamil Nadu called ‘Veshti‘ with the shirt having the national flag on the left and the G20 logo on the right, The Mint reports. It also mentioned that the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, will not be present physically at the festival and will address the inaugural through a video message.
The Indian Pavilion was designed and ideated by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad with the theme ‘Showcasing India’s Creative Economy to the global community’, Etv Bharat reports. The design was inspired by the Saraswati Yantra, an abstract representation of the goddess Saraswati who depicts knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom and learning. (IE) The Pavilion colours feature the three colours of the Indian national flag. The Pavilion represents India’s global involvement and a symbol of globalisation representing the exchange of culture and ideas. The Pavilion will depict the leap the Indian film Industry is making as it collaborates with global film and entertainment industries. Swarajya reports that the Pavillion will also highlight the contribution of women to cinema and the various cinematic and production facilities offered in India.
Coming to the Indian film works appreciated and honoured this year, Agra by Kanu Behl, Kennedy by Anurag Kashyap, Manipur Film Ishanou and Yudhajit Basu’s Nehemich are the four Indian films selected for the Cannes. According to Business Insider India, some of the Indian celebrities to walk the red carpet at Cannes 2023 include Anushka Sharma, Sara Ali Khan, Manushi Chillar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mrunal Thakur, Sunny Leone, Aditi Rao Hydari, Shanon K, Andrea Kevichusa and Ranveer Allahbadia aka ‘Beerbiceps’ on Instagram.
Cannes is known for its glamour and Fashion but another not-very popular aspect is the inaugural dinner for which chef Prateek Sadhu has been invited for this year. According to NDTV one of the dishes is called Tungrymbai, popular in the Khasi region which is made out of smoked and fermented soya beans. It will be paired with a traditional bread called Puthrao and a smoked tomato chutney. The chef said that the team will be including a millet-based menu since 2023 is the International Year of Millets as per the United Nations. “Since this is the year of millets we’re doing a Millet Thoran (a Kerala-based dish) as well as a millet pulao with a Malvani-style Sole Fish (a French delicacy) and Potato Koshimbir (a Marathi salad).” The desserts include sweets and mithais from the Bengali Sandesh, Maharashtrian Chikki, and Mysore Pak which will be served with Kashmiri Kahwa and homegrown coffee from Karnataka.
To conclude, though not everybody closely follows the Cannes Festival, it is a proud moment to know and see India make another step in representing itself globally makes us proud for sure.
Featured image (source)
Fashion Blogger Dolly Singh speaks at 2023 Cannes. The background has the image that students of NID, Ahmedabad designed