(Testo aggiornato il 27 maggio 2012)
La 65esima edizione del Festival di Cannes si svolgerà dal 16 al 27 maggio 2012. Nanni Moretti è presidente di giuria della selezione ufficiale. Segnalo di seguito i titoli indiani in cartellone:
* Miss Lovely, in concorso nella sezione Un certain regard, di Ashim Ahluwalia, con Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Miss Lovely esplora l'ambiente delle produzioni di B-movie. I protagonisti sono due fratelli che realizzano horror negli anni ottanta del secolo scorso. In un'intervista rilasciata nel 2010 a DearCinema, Ahluwalia racconta l'originale genesi della pellicola: 'Circa dieci anni fa, trascorsi molto tempo gironzolando sui set di film davvero di bassa fattura. Stavo progettando un documentario sulla produzione di un porno-horror, Maut Ka Chehra, realizzato da un manipolo di ex galeotti. Feci un mucchio di bevute con i cast e con le troupe di quelle pellicole, tutte persone fantastiche. Quei cineasti rinnegati creavano film dal nulla. Ero dinanzi ad una produzione cinematografica di disadattati genuinamente indipendenti, che lavoravano ai margini, con budget pateticamente miseri, e che facevano cinema con sangue, lacrime e sudore. La loro grezza energia mi ricordava la ragione per cui io stesso volevo in primo luogo fare cinema. Erano però tutti troppo spaventati dal confidarsi dinanzi alla mia telecamera, perché vi era anche un giro di malavita e prostituzione. Così il progetto del documentario fallì. Il materiale che raccolsi in quell'occasione e le persone che incontrai sono la base di Miss Lovely';
* Kalpana (1948) di Uday Shankar, sezione Cannes classics, in versione restaurata da L'immagine ritrovata di Bologna;
* Gangs of Wasseypur I & II di Anurag Kashyap, nell'ambito della Quinzaine des réalisateurs. Prima mondiale. Kashyap ha commentato nel suo profilo Twitter: 'Sono all'aeroporto di Bruxelles, in un'area silenziosa, ma vorrei gridare a squarciagola. Sono felicissimo. Ho deciso di festeggiare regalandomi un cappello da cowboy. Ora sembro un buffone, e continuo a sorridere a tutti';
* Peddlers di Vasan Bala, in concorso per la Caméra d'or nell'ambito della Semaine de la critique. Prima mondiale.
Nell'ambito della Quinzaine des réalisateurs, segnalo il seminario Multiplicities of Indian cinema - Bollywood: the tree obscuring the forest? in programma il 23 maggio 2012, a cui interverranno, fra gli altri, Anurag Kashyap e Sudhir Mishra. Al Marché du film sarà presente la casa di produzione Yash Raj Films per proporre ai distributori internazionali il suo pacchetto di pellicole. I media indiani hanno annunciato la partecipazione alla manifestazione di Aishwarya Rai (per l'undicesimo anno consecutivo), Sonam Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee, Onir e Arjun Rampal.
Vedi anche Aishwarya Rai al Festival di Cannes 2012
RASSEGNA STAMPA
- Could he be the next Irrfan Khan?, Aseem Chhabra, Rediff, 30 aprile 2012: intervista concessa da Nawazuddin Siddiqui
- Intervista concessa da Vasan Bala a Hindustan Times pubblicata il 2 maggio 2012
- Intervista concessa da Anurag Kashyap a Box Office India pubblicata il 4 maggio 2012: Com'è nata l'idea di Gangs of Wasseypur? 'I went to watch Kalki’s (Koechlin) play at Prithvi (teatro di Mumbai) and was sitting at the café. A guy spotted me sitting alone and started narrating his story. His name was Zeishan Quadri. I knew immediately that I would make this film. In Wasseypur, people actually live their lives as if they were in a Hindi film'. Alcune considerazioni sono davvero esilaranti: 'I am also introducing Tigmanshu Dhulia in the film and have given him a lot of screen space, unlike what he did to me in his film Shagird'. E ancora: 'My film has 25 item songs in it. Every character is an item. In fact, the entire film is an item'.
- It's a great year for Indian cinema, Patcy N., Rediff, 7 maggio 2012 (seconda parte: clicca qui) - Intervista concessa da Anurag Kashyap:
'Do you think Indian cinema is changing?
It is a great year for Indian cinema. (...) It is not necessary to have stars in a film; the subject matter is the star of the film. It is a huge thing that all kinds of cinema is being made in India today. (...) The greater thing is that my kind of film is also doing well these days, which is huge.
You think audiences today are open-minded?
No, some audiences are not open-minded even today, but now there are all kinds of audiences.
Tell us about Wasseypur.
It's a very long film. It is very desi and rooted. It is based on many true stories but we have fictionalised it because the characters that we have used in the film still exist in Wasseypur. We have changed the names and timeline of a few events. Wasseypur has a very different kind of atmosphere. People watch cinema the whole day. Their lives are influenced by cinema. Everybody carries a gun. It is a very strange world. It is not like any underworld that you have known and seen. I came to Mumbai (...) but my brother, by making Dabangg, reminded me of my roots. Manoj Bajpayee's house in the film is my house, where I lived and where Abhinav (Anurag's brother and director of Dabangg) was born. It was in Tashkent Colony, Obra, Uttar Pradesh. Now it is a ghost town so it was fun revisiting. (...)
The film is too long...
The story was so long that it was difficult deciding how to make it into one film. I had decided that I will narrate the whole story, whether it takes seven or 10 hours. We have edited it to 5 hours 20 minutes and it will be shown in two parts. It has 340 cast actors who have dialogues. When we wrote the script we wrote it in such a way that they look like two different stand-alone stories, but watched together, they look like one. The story covers three generations, from 1941 to 2009. We will release part one first and decide on the release of part two later this year. Both parts are ready and we will show both parts in Cannes.
Why did you choose Manoj Bajpayee?
Manoj Bajpayee belongs to Bihar, and I am making a film based in that part of the country. Whenever we have worked together (Satya, Shool) we have created fireworks. Manoj knows my best and I know his best. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia is the main villain in the film. He is a very good actor having learnt acting at the National School of Drama. We will introduce him as an actor in this film. He is outstanding; he plays a character who ages from 40 to 90. You have to watch his performance to believe me. (...)
You have said that all the songs in the film are item numbers. Why?
The music used in the film is rooted. We have used traditional Indian songs that we don't listen too much nowadays. We searched for North Indian songs with sexual overtones that were sung at weddings and recomposed them in a modern context. (...) There are 25 songs in the film and they are all item songs. (...)
Ram Gopal Varma also shot two films together (Rakht Charitra) and released them one after the other. Everybody saw part one, nobody saw part two because it was too gory. Will that happen to Gangs of Wasseypur?
This is not a gory film. It's a fun film. There is no deliberate comedy - it is just the way people are, the way they talk and the way they react. They live in a well and have never seen the world. The atmosphere is so new and quirky, but it's also an India that exists. (...) There are characters in the film who dress like their favourite actors, walk and talk like them, and mouth their film dialogues. I would say Bollywood's actual fan base is in Wasseypur. All the people in Wasseypur are foot soldiers, criminals, illegal businessmen. I have never seen this mix of Bollywood and crime anywhere else. The star of the film is the place, it's that world'.
- I am still a struggler, Shashi Priya, The Times of India, 12 maggio 2012 - Intervista concessa da Anurag Kashyap: 'I am working in an industry where people are very conditioned. They see things just one way and it took me a long time to make them see things in another manner. My films got banned and I got wondering what’s wrong. Then I realised the problem was with the system. It does not define my films as cinema. My struggle was that I saw films differently from others in the space I worked in. (...) Entertainment’s definition has been reduced to making people happy. Entertainment can be many things. Industry has taken a long time to understand what I am doing is also entertainment. The struggle is still there, even though it’s not as much as it was a decade back'.
- Intervista concessa da Nanni Moretti a Libération pubblicata il 15 maggio 2012. Moretti illustra le regole che ha imposto ai membri della giuria: ''Un: ne pas applaudir avant ni après les projections, parce que vous allez être observé et que le moindre geste sera interprété. Deux: voir tous les films bien entendu, et du début à la fin. Trois: faire souvent des réunions. Quatre: ne pas aller aux fêtes des films en compétition [Moretti rigole]. Je me souviens des jurés qui m'imploraient pour aller à la fête d'un film indien très musical et dansant. Cette année, ce quatrième commandement, je ne le dirai pas!'.
- Moment of glory, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo, The Hindu, 16 maggio 2012:
'Ninety-four-year-old Amala Shankar, wife of late dancer/director Uday Shankar will be walking the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival today for the screening of the new and restored version of Uday Shankar's Kalpana (1948). (...) Like most other classics, the negatives of Kalpana, too, were left neglected. Ad filmmaker Shivendra Singh (...) mediated between Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation (WCF) and Uday Shankar's family. (...) “WCF, founded by Martin Scorsese, specialises in restoration of old films and works closely with a restoration lab in Bologna, Italy. WCF works on restoration from the money pooled in by film enthusiasts. I learnt that the WCF was looking to restore Kalpana but their efforts to get the negatives turned futile. I had seen the film at a private screening and felt it would do a world of good to have it restored. In India, old films, like old monuments, are given a heritage tag but left to rot,” he says. (...) “I had to convince authorities at National Film Archive of India (NFAI) on why I had to send it to the restoration lab in Bologna. How many of our officials care about Martin Scorsese wanting to restore an Indian film? The tough part was to make them understand that there is no monetary benefit out of this restoration work,” says Shivendra. After persistent efforts, Shivendra was able to procure the rights and send the negatives to Bologna. “Once the restoration work was carried out, Martin Scorsese had recommended Kalpana for screening at Cannes. It will be a huge recognition when Amala Shankar walks the red carpet,” says Shivendra. (...) As director of Dungarpur films, Shivendra specialises in ad filmmaking. Besides that, he has also made a documentary titled Celluloid Man (prima mondiale a Bologna il prossimo giugno), on P.K. Nair, the founder of NFAI. (...) The restoration lab in Bologna also intends to work on Ritwik Ghatak's Meghe Dhaka Tara (aggiornamento del 27 dicembre 2021: nel 2019 Meghe Dhaka Tara è stato restaurato, e proiettato a Bologna nel 2020)'.
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| Il cast di Gangs of Wasseypur - Cannes, 2012 |
- The leader of the pack, Anuj Kumar, The Hindu, 17 maggio 2012 - Intervista concessa da Anurag Kashyap:
'This is proving to be the year when Hindi cinema ventured beyond the beaten track of big cities, glitzy metros and foreign shores to tell stories that matter to you and me. (...) “The big need in Indian cinema is to look within. Dibakar Banerjee and Vishal Bhardwaj stuck to the roots. I was the one who strayed. It is Tamil cinema which inspired me to return to my roots,” says Anurag. (...) He clarifies it is not the mainstream masala fair from the South, which is inspiring Bollywood these days, that hooked him. “I got hooked to films like ‘Subramaniapuram', ‘Aadukulam' (...). Watching these films, I realised I come from North India where many such stories exist in small towns and villages and I am stuck in cities.”
Narrating his journey to the coal mines, Anurag says, “Writer Zeishan Quadri comes from Wasseypur, which was once in Bengal, then in Bihar and is now part of Dhanbad in Jharkhand. It sounded unbelievable and I like verifying stories so I started researching because the way Zeishan told the story, it sounded very similar to Mumbai's gangster films. Having been part of ‘Satya' and having made ‘Black Friday', I didn't want to tell the same story with a slight change in the atmosphere. I wanted to explore what mafia do besides killing each other or playing power games. What fascinated me was this is one story where I could trace the origin of the mafia in India. So I decided to go back to 1941 to explore how and in what circumstances the mafia came out. Coal was the first natural resource to be exploited in the country and the coal mafia was the first mafia. The resource belonged to everyone but after the British left, the coal mines were allotted only to the Tatas, Birlas and Thapars. They were not given to people who lived there and whose survival depended on them. The big corporates needed coal for their industries but they didn't know how to run the coal mines so they hired the same people who used to run mines during the British period. There used to be a pehalwan who used to make people work. After Independence suddenly people realised that it is a natural resource and belongs to everybody and there is a lot of money to be made. This led to rampant pilferage. Situations kept changing. The Constitution came, Babu Jagjivan Ram became the Labour Minister. He supported formation of unions but then the mafia started operating through unions. When the mines were nationalised, the mafia found its way through that as well. Like the Naxal story, at the end of the day, it is the story of survival.”
As for the conscience, he says those who indulged in pilferage explained to themselves that when everybody is taking it why not they. (...) “Everybody wanted his share. The film captures the changing nature of the business, the vengeance and the politics of it all through three generations of one family.” Talking about the layers in the tale, Anurag says the film is holding a mirror to one area, which is similar to a lot of others areas. “What is happening in Wasseypur is also happening in places like Chandauli, places where mining is happening.” The research led to interesting findings like Bollywood's influence on the mafia, and Anurag tries to put it in context. “With Amitabh Bachchan Bollywood entered their lives. When they saw ‘Deewaar' something inside them got underlined. Because deep inside they feel they are doing it for good. At heart everybody is a Robin Hood there. The irony of it all was to be captured with a very spicy humour that the space inherently has. The innocence still lingers somewhere in the eyes of the misguided vengeful souls who know no other way to live but kill.”
He is also accused of making profanities part of cinematic language. “My point is profanity should not be there for the sake of it. I come from a region where it is part of everyday language and the way they use it is how we are using it in the film.” It is a five-and-a-half-hour long saga is divided into two parts. “The script is of 240 pages and I wanted to use all of it. Ram Gopal Varma's experiment didn't work but I believe if your story holds and each part looks complete in itself, people will come to watch even 10 parts.” (...)
He hasn't given up on the independent filmmaker in him. (...) Also, he elaborates that even in his so-called big films he negotiates a lot. “Shooting style remains the same. We work well within the budgets, cast local actors, use guerrilla techniques. (...) But that doesn't mean compromise. Technique-wise we are strong. For the last three years our films (‘Dev. D', ‘Udaan', ‘Shaitan'), are winning the best awards in cinematography and sound.” (...)
On comparisons with Dibakar Banerjee: “To me he is Hindi cinema biggest filmmaker. I don't take the kind of responsibilities that Dibakar takes. I get very personal, at times indulgent. (...) I am a big cinephile. I remain limited to cinema. He is boundless. I am a researched filmmaker, he is an organic filmmaker. His observation of little-little things is marvellous. I don't know what to do and how to do. I know what not to do. I negate things to make my way. Dibakar knows where he has to go. His music sense is very strong. I don't know music. I have to scrape a lot. He is natural. Yes my destiny is perhaps better than Dibakar. He should be given the space that he deserves at the international level”.'
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| Sonam Kapoor - Cannes, 2012 (abito Dolce&Gabbana) |
- How Peddlers reflects the indie spirit, Nyay Bhushan, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 maggio 2012:
'THR: How did the concept of Peddlers come about?
Bala: It really came from this person I knew - the growing up and witnessing of him. It started off with him and became a coming of age story through this personality. The things that define who you are at a particular stage in your life. It’s about innocence being thrust between many guarded souls. The whole idea of innocence lost is taken a little ahead as innocence destroyed. The loss of innocence is treated as destruction so I had to put in extreme characters. There is nothing better in evolution than a man-woman relationship. The boy-to-man-to-devil curve happens through a relationship. That worked like a big catalyst.
THR: You have also said that you wanted to show a massively populated city like Mumbai as a ghost town.
Bala: The idea was to treat Mumbai as a ghost town, because when you think of Mumbai, you think huge crowds so I eliminated that. The characters don’t venture out with crowds so you see them only when Mumbai is empty. It’s this whole idea of people being locked in. So the film turned the concept of Mumbai on its head. The paths of the three main characters collide with the whole idea being that the city doesn’t matter. (...)
THR: What is your take on the indie scene in India?
Bala: What works for indie cinema is that those who are getting into it are not bound by any rules. The problem is with those who understand the rules and hence get stuck by the rules. There is a naivete amongst us which lets us do things just for the heck of it. We are not saying that we have to go to Cannes. It’s really about making any kind of film - maybe it’s a bit of foolhardiness and arrogance. Those energies lead us somewhere rather than following any conscious decision to improve things or make a statement. But yes, when you are saying something strong or individualistic, there would be a statement, there would be a signature.
THR: Do you see new opportunities for your kind of cinematic sensibilities since the Indian mainstream is trying to change despite the odds?
Bala: The whole act of rebellion, even if it is not there per se, I mean the whole idea that it even sounds like a rebellion turns me on. There is a subtle aggression. But I must say that if Peddlers was made with more comfort levels, it wouldn’t have half the impact it has now. Just the fact that every morning you didn’t know if your location would be available. You are shooting and ten feet away my production guy is fighting with the location owner who wants us to vacate right away. There is a certain kind of energy that propels the indie movement.
THR: Another interesting thing with indie films is how they are boosting new talent.
Bala: I think if you make it clear that choosing the actor has to be a very free-flowing decision by the director and not thrust by a producer to look for a marketable face, then it becomes easier. That helped as I could choose anyone, right from the streets to the theatre. I also met some people who came via Facebook. More than auditions, I believed in interacting with the talent. This is not a film bound by a script or character-driven. I wanted the actors to bring something of their own to the project. And I wanted to see if they were aligned with the story. Most of the people had traces of their own characters. I didn’t want them to undergo an acting process. So it was more organic. They really came from incredible backgrounds. I mean one guy is a photographer whose father was a porn film-maker. I saw a documentary on him and I called him to ask if he wants to act. He came and he was the most natural thing in the film. There are these surprise elements that raise the bar'.
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| Anurag Kashyap - Cannes, 2012 |
- A minute with: Anurag Kashyap, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Reuters, 20 maggio 2012
- In concomitanza con il Festival di Cannes, il 21 maggio 2012 Variety ha pubblicato tre articoli dedicati al cinema indiano: Bombay bazaar, Regional films feed India's need for more films, Bollywood: moving past its signature style.
- Anurag Kashyap on Gangs of Wasseypur, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 maggio 2012:
'THR: How do you see your entries at Cannes validating what you’ve been striving to do in India?
Kashyap: If you get validation from outside, then suddenly everything you do at home is justified. We are brought up in a way where we do what our fathers do. You are not expected to rock the boat, you don’t change the status quo, especially in films, which have been traditionally controlled by a handful of people, actually film families. Outsiders are not supposed to change anything. I can’t complain about that, but now there is change happening. The young filmmakers really don’t give a damn about the establishment. They want to do their own thing, they are not star-struck, especially if you see the other Indian films at Cannes. (...) I still have one foot in Bollywood, (...) but these guys are totally independent of that. They worked hard for years to get their films made independently. My film is still funded by a studio. (...) My responsibility is now only to my kind of cinema, but these new directors will do more to change Indian cinema since their films are very fearless.
THR: So you don’t think Gangs of Wasseypur is fearless?
Kashyap: It is fearless only in its cost and casting. (...) In terms of storytelling, it is entertaining and mainstream, but not that fearless. It is not a Bollywood film, but about a place that is impacted by Bollywood, so it makes it commercial. The West sometimes doesn’t understand Bollywood, but they can definitely understand how Bollywood influences people'.
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| Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Cannes, 2012 |
- Indian films shine at Cannes film festival, Priyanka Dasgupta, The Times of India, 23 maggio 2012:
'While Indian celebs bond at the French Riviera this year, thanks to the gang of directors like Anurag Kashyap, Onir and Nila Madhab Panda, people are now talking more about Indian celebs who’ve been to Cannes by virtue of their work and not for being the face of a cosmetic major. (...) When recent Indian cinema is giving reasons to celebrate, isn’t it worthwhile to focus on that as well and not just on the glamour quotient? Monday night was time for celebrations for the Indian brigade. Anurag Kashyap, Onir, Sanjay Suri, (...) Sudhir Mishra, (...) Gulshan Devaiah and Nila Madhab Panda danced to Bollywood numbers. For them, it was a time to celebrate the global recognition of independent Indian cinema.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who has three movies at Cannes, flew to France on Monday night. The actor attributes this lack of awareness to both ignorance and the existence of a lobby that emphasises misplaced priorities. (...) “Designers didn’t want to give me something that I could wear at the Cannes red carpet. So, I went to a local tailor to get a suit stitched for myself. There is a lobby at work that doesn’t want underdogs to get their recognition. It suits them to not pay attention to them to avoid a threat. But, things are changing slowly. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have had the guts to talk about this issue. I, at least, have a voice now,” he says.
Says Onir, (...) “Though things are changing, acting prowess is not what gets media coverage in India. It’s the commerce that matters. (...) They do know about the stars and what they are wearing even if it’s for endorsing a brand. Yet, I’m very optimistic after my Cannes visit this year because I see a change in mindset.” (...)
Panda, on his part, says, “International buyers are interested in our movies. Bollywood glam will always be there. Some will talk about backless gowns but there are others who are discussing our movies. That’s good for us. Work apart, we are having a great time partying at Cannes”.' L'articolo si conclude con la lista dei titoli indiani premiati a Cannes dal 1946 al 1999.
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| Arjun Rampal e Mehr Jesia - Cannes, 2012 |
- Recensione di Miss Lovely, Marco Minniti, Movieplayer, 24 maggio 2012
- Recensione di Gangs of Wasseypur, Marco Grosoli, Sentieri Selvaggi, 24 maggio 2012
- Recensione di Gangs of Wasseypur, Internazionale, 24 maggio 2012
- The haunting Hunter song, Prabalika M. Borah, The Hindu, 24 maggio 2012:
'The Hunter song from ‘Gangs of Wasseypur' is making waves.
I am a hunter
She want to see my gun
When I pull it out
Woman started run
(...) Which hunter? He comes from Wasseypur and you can listen to him in Gangs of Wasseypur, the latest from Anuraag Kashyap's kitty. (...) While most of the team is in Cannes, TV and radio listeners are not getting enough of this song which is being aired in most music channels. (...) What catches the attention is the style, words and the distinct use of folk and rural instruments. Sang by Vedesh Sookoo, Rajneesh, Shyamoo and Munna the lyrics of the title have been penned by Varun Grover. Recorded in the Chutney music theme the song has almost become viral.
Music director Anup Rubens says, “It is a very novel way of introducing music which is less known to people. Besides giving the industry a new theme, it also gives due recognition to the style which might have its origin in either folk or rural.” Rubens also adds that it is only movies which can make new music genres popular. “Albums usually fail to create the charm that music in movies succeeds in doing.”
While everyone is enjoying the song and discussing it on social media, it's also talk about the theme in which it is recorded. Hunter is recorded in the Chutney Music theme which has its roots in the Indo-Caribbean. Chutney music is contemporary fusion of genres created by Indo-Caribbean people whose ancestors belonged to places like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and South India. Established in the 1940s within temples, wedding houses, and cane fields, Chutney music became popular in 1968. The Chutney Music is up-tempo song, accompanied by electric guitar, synthesizer, dholak harmonium and dhantal. In the 1980s, Chutney music saw more evolution. The modern chutney artist writes lyrics in either Hindi, Bhojpuri or English and then lays it on top of beats that come from Indian beats from the dholak mixed with the Soca beat'.
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| Sonam Kapoor - Cannes, 2012 |
- Recensione di Miss Lovely, Alfonso Mastrantonio, Indie-eye, 25 maggio 2012
- Indian cinema is a joke at Cannes, Subhash K. Jha, The Times of India, 25 maggio 2012: non tutti sono entusiasti per il numero di pellicole indiane proiettate quest'anno al Festival di Cannes e negli eventi collaterali alla manifestazione. Il produttore Sheetal Vinod Talwar commenta così la festa organizzata all'Indian Pavilion: 'It's nothing but mutual masturbation. We're a fucking joke at Cannes. Every year we hear of this or that film going to Cannes. The fact is, hardly any Indian ever makes it into the competitive section. Even this year apart from Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely, all the other films that you hear about being at Cannes are in non-competitive sections. Every year I come here and I see the Indian government's money being wasted by the so-called Indian Pavilion. What does this Pavilion achieve every year at Cannes? According to me, zilch. Every year members of the Indian film industry travel business class to Cannes, party with one another and go back without making any difference to global cinema. What does the party achieve in terms of getting us global recognition? How can we claim to crack Cannes when we can't even get any international filmmaker or actor to attend our party out there? (...) The rest of us - and I include myself - are only wasting our time over here at Cannes. Indian cinema is a joke at Cannes. But we don't realize it because we're busy having a good time at our government's expense. We continue to praise our own cinema and feel great about making what we consider world-class cinema. But face it barring a stray Satyajit Ray or Mira Nair, the world is not interested in our cinema'.
- 'Bollywood doesn't grow because it's self-sufficient', Srijana Mitra Das, The Times of India, 25 maggio 2012 - Intervista concessa da Anurag Kashyap:
'Where does Bollywood stand today in a global film context like Cannes?
Well, 'Bollywood' is a manifold thing. Outside, they mostly know mainstream Bollywood whereas the two streams of regional cinema making a lot more progress are Tamil and Marathi - the best films we're making today are in Tamil and Marathi. If you talk about mainstream masala, Telugu cinema's doing this better than us. We're borrowing from their masala and remaking this. We're not creating our own original mainstream Bollywood today - this often becomes derivative. And the West mainly sees this. It's just entertainment for them... they watch Bollywood like B-movies are seen.
But Bollywood also doesn't grow because fortunately or unfortunately, it's self-sufficient. A Bollywood film doesn't need to sell even one ticket to a foreigner to sustain itself. People from European cinema or diverse film streams need to sell tickets to other regions to sustain themselves. That's why European films don't have an industry. Most of their films are funded by institutions or government bodies. But our films are business, funded by private people and studios. It makes money for everyone. Because of this, we're cocooned in it, we're very happy inside - and we don't grow. So, with Bollywood today, the good part is we don't need to sell outside, we don't need the West. The other simultaneous thing is we don't grow as cinema.
How would you then explain the experimental commercial films we're seeing from new directors?
The few progressive filmmakers are all from outside Bollywood's circle. Zoya Akhtar is probably the only insider strongly rooted in her context, yet experimental. But film in India has largely been controlled by families who've made only love stories. That's their whole idea of cinema. New cinema is being made by filmmakers who come from across India, from small towns and different regions, not from film families. They're the ones doing this other kind of cinema because there is such an India that exists and such stories that need to be told - these people are the ones telling them.'
- Recensione di Miss Lovely, Marco Grosoli, Sentieri Selvaggi, 27 maggio 2012
- Video Bollywood Hungama: Kashyap incontra la stampa all'Indian Pavilion a Cannes
