26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Pritt Kamani on making his debut at Cannes Film Festival 2025: We had gone with a film on our merit
Actor Pritt Kamani got an achievement to his name recently as his film The Storm, The Calm, The Madness, The Magic premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2025 as a part of the top eight films of the Straight 8 segment. It became the first Indian film to do so in the segment's 25 years history.
Calling the achievement 'fulfilling', Pritt Kamani says, 'I was extremely happy and not for the fact that we've won or achieved something, but for the fact that we tried to make something and it was recognised.' Straight 8 is a filmmaking challenge where participants must shoot a film on a single Super 8mm cartridge, edited entirely in-camera, with sound submitted blind. No re-takes or post-production takes place, and only the top eight films are selected for premiere at Cannes.
Making an appearance at the festival with a film made it more important for the actor. 'It was not just an appearance; we had gone with a film on our own merit and that is special,' he says, giving his opinion on influencers also going to Cannes in today's time. 'Every presence at Cannes has its own value, whether it's for film or fashion or culture. Having said that, definitely going there with a film and hear resounding applause from people around the world is special.'
Pritt shares that the film received appreciation from all at the premiere. 'It has a huge influence of proper Hindi film cinema, and it was new for everybody out there to watch a film like that and they loved it,' he says, adding that many people back home didn't even get to know about their film's achievement due to the lack of awareness. 'It's not a popular category of the competition, and not many people even know of it. But I wish that through our film, many more people back home get to know about it,' he hopes.
Last year, a small film All We Imagine As Light (AWIAL) became a resounding global success due to its win at Cannes. Does he see a similar prospect for their film too? 'AWIAL is a mammoth achievement. It won the Grand Prix and (director) Payal Kapadia is a genius. I don't think we are even in the vicinity of being close to that achievement for India. But our film had its own set of challenges, and we represented India on that small scale, but even that is also a feeling of pride and honour. Definitely, we've not lit up the headlines, but we've made our own little spark. And I hope whenever our film is out, and people actually understand what we've done, they automatically talk about it,' he ends.
