India doesn't support 'Cannes kind' of cinema, says Anurag Kashyap

India didnt have any moment at Cannes says filmmaker Anurag Kashyap stressing that the victory of independent filmmakers at the European gala is theirs alone and the country doesnt support that kind of awardwinning cinemaIndia won an unprecedented three awards at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival last month Payal Kapadia became the first ever director from India to win the Grand Prix for her movie All We Imagine As Light Anasuya Sengupta was awarded best actress in the Un Certain Regard strand for The Shameless and FTII student Chidananda S Naik earned the best short film award at the La Cinef section for Sunflowers Were the First Ones to KnowI get very upset when its said IndiaCannes This is a boost a shot in the arm for a lot of independent filmmakers but their victory is their own Kashyap told PTI in an interview hereIndia didnt have any moment at Cannes not a single of those films are Indian We need to address it the way it should be addressed India has stopped supporting such cinema the kind of cinema that was at Cannes he said He said Kapadias All We Imagine as Light which was also the first film from India in 30 years to feature in the main competition at Cannes known for giving a platform to new voices received funding from a French company The MalayalamHindi feature which earned the secondhighest award at Cannes after Palme dOr is an IndoFrench coproduction between Petit Chaos from France and Chalk and Cheese Films from India There were several films at Cannes with either Indiaset stories or Indian talent at the helm but most were coproductions with banners from other countries IndianBritish filmmaker Sandhya Suris Santosh and Karan Kandharis Sister Midnight were funded by the UK while Konstantin Bojanovs The Shameless was almost selffundedHowever Chidanands Sunflowers is a production of the TV Wing Oneyear programme under the Film and Television Institute of India FTII India just likes to take credit for a lot of things they do not support these films and they dont even support these films to have a release in cinema Kashyap saidIn 2021 Kapadia had won an award at Cannes for the documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing but that is yet to be released in India Stop taking credit for it Lets stop this fake celebration Even if the film is released no one will go to watch it in the theatre the 51yearold said He also cited the example of Shaunak Sens documentary All that Breathes which won the Golden Eye award at Cannes 2022 that didnt release on Indian screens and went straight to a streamer Then there were independent films such as Jaggi and Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar that won awards at festivals that will eventually find home in streamers Kashyap was also critical of the spotlight on influencers on the famed red carpetThis obsession India has with Cannes More than Cannes its about the red carpet Thats on another level I get more angry when I hear these things Geetanjali Rao got three awards at Cannes for Printed Rainbow in 2003 I wrote an article on it but it was not recognised rarely anyone wrote about that here Theres no support system hereDays after her win Kapadia also an FTII graduate penned an open letter in which she pushed for a government fund for women filmmakers and underrepresented sections to foster independent filmmaking while praising the Kerala government for starting a similar initiativeKashyap whose films such as Gangs of Wasseypur Ugly and Kennedy have screened at Cannes over the years across sections like Directors Fortnight and Midnight Screenings said he was also surprised when former FTII chairperson Gajendra Chauhan took credit for Kapadias win Back in 2015 Kapadia was one of the students who protested against the appointment of Mahabharat actorBJP politician Chauhan as FTII head Kapadia was among the 35 students charged under various Indian Penal Code sections for offences related to unlawful assembly criminal intimidation and rioting The chargesheet was filed in 2016 and the next court hearing is scheduled for June 26 according to the defence lawyer representing the studentsThe worst part is that the man who put the case against her and sent some students to jail is the first man who took the credit for her and said Im proud that I was the FTII chairperson What is his name Yudhishthir ji his Mahabharat role Gajendra Chauhan said Im so proud that she was the student when I was the head You are the one who put the case against her Kashyap added The director who will be seen in an acting role in the web series Bad Cop said the Indian film business focuses primarily on producing blockbuster hits We have made many independent films Ive seen how much support they get and dont get At the end of the day in India everyone is here to do business No one wants to do good work everyone wants to do hit work success he saidAsked about critically acclaimed smaller films like Joram and All India Rank not being marketed well to reach the audiences Kashyap said such movies cant match up to the marketing of a big film The pressure is on a small film too they cant spend much on the visibility of the film To make a small film visible around big films is very difficult Besides those films are unable to make the recovery you dont get good show timings as good show timings are covered by big films he said lauding the South movie industry for fixing marketing and ticket pricing for both bigbudget and small movies Directed by Aditya Datt Bad Cop stars Gulshan Devaiah as Karan a fierce cop trying to chase down Kazbe Kashyap a villain more powerful and deadly than him and simultaneously managing his personal relationships The actiondrama series will premiere on Disney Hotstar on June 21This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice 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