Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recently stirred conversations within the Indian film industry by stating that India did not have a significant moment at the 77th edition of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival despite the notable wins by independent filmmakers. Kashyap emphasized that these victories are attributed solely to the efforts of the filmmakers themselves and do not reflect governmental or institutional support for this type of cinema.
At the 77th Cannes Film Festival, held last month, India celebrated unprecedented successes. Payal Kapadia became the first Indian director to win the Grand Prix for her evocative film “All We Imagine As Light.” Anasuya Sengupta was honored as best actress in the Un Certain Regard section for her stellar performance in “The Shameless,” and FTII student Chidananda S. Naik secured the best short film award in the La Cinef section for “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know.” Though these accolades put Indian filmmakers in the global spotlight, Kashyap remains skeptical.
Expressing his discontent, Kashyap told PTI, “I get very upset when it’s said ‘India@Cannes’. This is a boost… a shot in the arm for a lot of independent filmmakers but their victory is their own.” According to him, the notion that India as a nation shared in these successes is misleading, noting, “India didn’t have any moment at Cannes. Not a single one of those films is Indian in terms of production support. We need to address this the way it should be addressed. India has stopped supporting such cinema, the kind of cinema that was at Cannes.”
Kashyap pointed out that Kapadia’s “All We Imagine As Light,” notable for being the first Indian film in 30 years to compete in Cannes’ main competition, received funding from a French company. This Malayalam-Hindi feature, which earned the second highest award at Cannes after the Palme d’Or, is an Indo-French co-production between Petit Chaos from France and Chalk and Cheese Films from India.
The filmmaker further explained that many of the films with Indian narratives or talent at the Cannes festival were co-productions involving foreign companies. For instance, Indian-British filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s “Santosh” and Karan Kandhari’s “Sister Midnight” were funded by the UK, while Konstantin Bojanov’s “The Shameless” was largely self-funded. Chidanand’s “Sunflowers…” remains an exception, produced under the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
Kashyap criticized India’s habit of taking undue credit, saying, “India just likes to take credit for a lot of things, they do not support these films, and they don’t even support these films to have a release in cinema.” He noted the disparity in how award-winning films are treated in the domestic market. For instance, Kapadia’s previous Cannes-winning documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing” from 2021 has yet to see a release in India.
The director further cited the case of Shaunak Sen’s documentary “All that Breathes,” which won the Golden Eye award at Cannes 2022 but bypassed Indian screens in favor of a streaming release. Other independent films like “Jaggi” and “Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar” have followed a similar trajectory, gaining recognition at festivals yet finding homes primarily on streaming platforms.
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Kashyap also took aim at the undue attention given to influencers on the Cannes red carpet. “This obsession India has with Cannes… More than Cannes, it’s about the red carpet. That’s 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. There’s no support system here.”
In her open letter days after her win, Kapadia, also an FTII graduate, advocated for a government fund for women filmmakers and under-represented sections to foster independent filmmaking, commending the Kerala government for implementing a similar initiative.
Recalling an instance of hypocrisy, Kashyap was taken aback when former FTII chairperson and “Mahabharat” actor-BJP politician Gajendra Chauhan took credit for Kapadia’s success. Back in 2015, Kapadia was one of the students who protested against Chauhan’s controversial appointment as FTII head, leading to criminal charges against some students. Kashyap noted the irony, “The 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, ‘I’m proud that I was the FTII (chairperson)’.”
Reflecting on the broader state of the Indian film industry, Kashyap observed that the focus remains heavily skewed towards producing commercial blockbuster hits. “We have made many independent films, I’ve seen how much support they get and don’t 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).”
When asked about critically acclaimed but under-marketed films like “Joram” and “All India Rank,” Kashyap explained that small-budget films struggle to achieve visibility against big-budget releases. “The pressure is on a small film too; they can’t 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 don’t get good show timings as those are covered by big films,” he said, admiring the South Indian movie industry for balancing marketing and ticket pricing across different budget spectrums.
Kashyap, who will be seen in an acting role in the action-drama series “Bad Cop,” also previewed the challenges faced by independent cinema amidst the dominance of mainstream productions. 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, while also managing his personal relationships. The series is set to premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on June 21.
