India is the first ever official Country of Honour at Cannes Film Market Marche du Film

As the 75th Cannes Film Festival began with a bang on Tuesday, India made a strong pitch towards becoming the content hub of the world.

This year's Marche Du Films has selected India as the first Country of Honour (Cannes Film Market) and Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur led the Indian delegation. He called it "a historic moment" for India.

He shared the red carpet with R Madhavan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ricky Kej, Shekhar Kapur, Prasoon Joshi and others. Ricky Kej, a two-time Grammy winner, is among the Indian delegation's other members.

While attending the festival, I & B Minister Thakur made a push for India to become the world's "content hub" and preferred "post-production hub" for international filmmakers.

In a message, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said that India truly possesses immense potential to become the content hub of the world.

Reiterating India’s commitment to improve ease of doing business in the film sector, Prime Minister 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.

Spotlight on India

Thakur inaugurated the India Pavilion at Cannes Film Market ‘Marche du Film’.

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 5 new Startups would be given an opportunity to pitch to the Audio-Visual Industry.

Ten professionals will participate on the Animation Day networking.

In Cannes, Thakur met with Charles Rivkin, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). MPA is the trade group that represents the main American film studios.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister also met Mr Jérôme Paillard, the Executive Director of Marché du Film. He also had a fruitful discussion with Shivani Pandya, Managing Director (MD), Red Sea International film, Saudi Arabia at Cannes film festival.

According to 'Variety,' India will be present throughout the event this year. Deepika Padukone is on the main feature film category jury. 'Le Musk,' Rahman's directorial debut, was presented at the Cannes XR show on Tuesday.

As a major highlight of India’s participation at this edition of Cannes Film Festival, World Premier of the Movie 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect,' produced by R Madhavan is scheduled to be showcased at the Palais des Festivals on Thursday.

'All That Breathes,' Shaunak Sen's Sundance grand jury prize-winning documentary, will be also be screened. Apart from this, the film 'Pratidwandi' (1970) by Satyajit Ray will be presented in the Cannes Classics section of the festival.

Cannes Film Festival, which gathers every year the who’s who of the global movie industry, is taking place from May 17 to 28. Indian delegates will be taking part in various events and high-level meetings.

The festival is special this year for its celebration of Indian cinema’s prowess.