25-05-2025
At Cannes 2025, India Sees a Calm After the Storm
Crew members install the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals ahead of the opening ceremony of the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. Photo: AP/PTI.
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Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was once asked by his good friend and director Robert Rodriguez on his talk show The Director's Chair – what endeared him to Cannes so much. Tarantino likened the film festival to the chess championships where Bobby Fischer was a contender. I'm assuming what he meant was that everyone invited here was either at the top of their craft, or was swinging for the fences – championing the French saying ' l'art pour l'art (art for art's sake)'. Tarantino, who broke out as a phenomenon after Pulp Fiction (1994) won the Palme d'Or at the 47th Cannes film festival, is right about its durable prestige in terms of being rated among the best and the bravest filmmakers of the world.
This is why cinephiles from India look forward to the festival each year – to get a sense of where Indian cinema stands vis-a-vis film industries from around the world. Payal Kapadia, whose All We Imagine As Light (2024) became the first Indian film in nearly three decades to play in competition and ended up winning the Grand Prix (losing narrowly to Sean Baker's Anora), returned as a part of the Cannes jury alongside names like Halle Berry, Hong Sangsoo, and Jeremy Strong among others. After an exciting 2024 edition, it was back to business with no Indian films in contention for the festival's top prize. There were, however, three Indian films playing at the festival.
Neeraj Ghaywan, whose first film Masaan (2015), premiered in the Un Certain Regard section, returned with his second film Homebound (2025) playing in the same section. Produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Production, with executive producer Martin Scorsese on board, the film starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor – is based on a New York Times op-ed written by veteran journalist Basharat Peer.
It's only Ghaywan's second feature film in a decade, where he's spent working on ad film projects, directing for web series, and also helming short films in anthologies. Ghaywan's film is based on the lives of two friends, who were a part of a mass migration that took place after a nationwide lockdown was announced on March 23, 2020 because of the rising cases of COVID-19.
Homebound got glowing reviews in Cannes, and it will be interesting to see how the film will be received by the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Especially because it depicts one of India's most pressing humanitarian crises in recent memory, inferring a mishandling by the powers that be.
Anubhav Sinha's Bheed (2023) is the only other Hindi feature film that depicted the aftermath of the lockdown announcement, facing significant online outrage upon the release of its trailer. However, Sinha's did get an eventual theatrical release after some minor tweaks.
Kokob Gebrehaweria Tesfay's A Doll Made Up Of Clay was among the 16 short films selected among the 2,700 entries for Cinéfondation – a category that features the works of student films from across the world. Tesfay – an Ethiopian national and an international student (in the Direction department) at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI) in Kolkata – made the film around a Nigerian footballer, who after a career-ending injury, seeks escape through an ancestral ritual. Tesfay's is the third student film to find acceptance in the section in the last five years from India after Ashmita Guha Neogi's CatDog (2020) and Chidananda Naik's Sunflowers were the first to know… (2024). Both these films went on to win first prize – a grant of €15,000.
Shivendra Singh Dungapur's Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), at the forefront of India's efforts at archiving and restoring classic films, were also at Cannes for a fourth consecutive time. FHF screened the 4K restorations of Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Ratri [Days and Nights in the Forest/1970, Bengali] and Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai [Girls/1978, Sinhalese]. Both films got long standing ovations, especially Ray's film – which had Wes Anderson among its audience. The Hollywood director has long cited Ray as an influence, and is also thanked by Dungarpur in the restored version of the film. Among the primary cast, Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal accompanied Dungarpur on the red carpet of the premiere.
FHF is slowly becoming a regular feature at the Cannes film festival – joining hands with labs and archivists from around the world to preserve films from the subcontinent. Earlier they screened G. Aravindan's Thampu (1978) in 2022, M.K. Binodini Devi's Ishanou (1990) in 2023, and Shyam Benegal's Manthan (1984) last year.
The chasm between official selections and films merely boarding the hype train at Cannes, continues to exist. Among them is Anupam Kher's Tanvi The Great, which premiered at the Marche du film (the Cannes Film Market) – a place where any film seeking distribution can hold a screening for potential exhibitors, audiences. Many films playing in the Cannes Film Market tend to conflate their achievement with a 'Cannes premiere' – without necessarily being an official selection, which only happens through a highly competitive selection process. It's a bit like how influencers have begun showing up on the red carpet without an invitation in the last few years, because they have the money and sponsorship to show up. As indie filmmakers and actors, part of official selections, tend to struggle to pay for their trip to Cannes.
India has had a good showing at Cannes film festival in the last few years — with Payal Kapadia's A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021) and Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes (2022) winning the Camera d'Or in successive years. And Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light picking up the Grand Prix in 2024. Anasuya Sengupta winning Best Actor (Un Certain Regard) for The Shameless (2024) was something no pundit could've predicted, and yet the film is nowhere to be found on Indian platforms a year later.
At the time of writing this, Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident won the Palme d'Or, while Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value picked up the Grand Prix. Let's hope the Indian contingent doesn't lose momentum of the last few years – and if the Bharat Pavillion's continued neglect of its official selections helps matters. For those interested, there might be a lesson in Panahi's win.
