No Cannes do: Who has time for Richa Chaddha's Masaan when Ash, Kat and Sonam are peddling L'Oreal?

Even as we devoted entire coffee breaks and dinners fiercely debating whether Sonam Kapoor’s dress looked the more like a feather duster or an omelette, the makers of Masaan were preparing to screen Neeraj Ghaywan’s debut film at the festival. Not that any of us noticed or even knew. On the eve of Masaan’s screening in the festival, there was hardly any mention of the teeny fact that Ghaywan’s film was set to be screened that evening. There was absolutely no camera following its actor Richa Chaddha around, almost no bytes from Ghaywan being televised on any national channel. Social media and news portals were instead flooded with pictures of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan posing up a storm in a wine coloured gown. Why? She was releasing the first look of her film Jazbaa in Cannes. Where better to unveil a movie poster than at the world’s most prestigious film festival? Pictures of Masaan’s cast finally surfaced on the internet late today. A handful of journalists, actress Richa Chaddha and the film’s director tweeted out pictures from the screening, and mentioned the fact that the film had received a five-minute long standing ovation at the festival. [caption id=“attachment_2254426” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Richa Chaddha in Masaan.[/caption] So yes, it took a foreign audience to applaud the film and that applause for us to turn our attention to an Indian film actually being screened at the festival – as opposed to the wardrobe of women flown into a film festival to promote a cosmetics brand. It’s not just Masaan which has been neglected due to our slavish obsession with Bollywood stars whose only business at the festival is to look smashing and promote L’Oreal. According to a report on The Telegraph, filmmaker Gurvinder Singh - whose film Chauthi Koot has been selected to be screened as a part of Un Certain Regard, a competition section which awards off-beat films – has complained that the Indian media has shown no interest in his film. Never mind that it has been picked to be screened alongside the best from the world by the Cannes jury. Gurvinder Singh told The Telegraph, “The Indian journalists coming to Cannes unfortunately discovered Cannes through film stars.” Singh’s angst is not un-founded. The short shrift that great Indian films get in Cannes in favour of preening Bollywood stars – by the Indian media, mind you, not the festival folks – is symbolic of the attitude of the industry and viewers back in the country. Chances are, before The Telegraph wrote the said report, most us weren’t even aware that Chauthi Koot existed, forget knowing that it has made it to the competition section of the festival. But here’s what is worse: even after an indie film makes waves in an international festival like Cannes, the makers find it difficult to secure a commercial release in India. For example, Kanu Behl’s Titli which was screened and unanimously praised in Cannes last year has not yet not been released at home as yet. Titli counts Dibakar Banerjee and Yash Raj Films as its producers, despite which it has failed to make it to the big screen in India. Ashim Ahluwali’s Miss Lovely, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, was the only Indian film to have been screened in Cannes in 2012. Like Titli, it elicited rave reviews by critics and the audience. Two years after it was screened at the festival, Miss Lovely was released in theatres but it disappeared almost as soon as it released. So the focus and pattern of the Indian media’s Cannes coverage – minute-to-minute updates about the whereabouts of the Sonam Kapoors and Katrina Kaifs – is hardly surprising. Never mind it is a film festival not a fashion fest. Hey, if the Indian media is remiss, surely the Bollywood A-list can do their bit for Indian cinema, right?  Wrong! You’ll never catch a Rai or a Kapoor make even a passing mention of a Titli or Masaan. While they can’t possibly choose which screening they walk the red carpet for, surely, they can plug an Indian film during press interviews? Yet they don’t. Now, it could be a case of plain ignorance. For example, when The Telegraph asked Kapoor if she has watched any film at the festival yet, she said, “I did not watch the film (for which she walked the red carpet). I could not sit in the gown, so I came back, but I want to catch… I heard there is a wonderful documentary by an Indian-descent (director)…." Which ‘wonderful’ film? Asif Kapadia’s documentary on Amy Winehouse, “Amy”. A hard name, no wonder Sonam couldn’t remember it. So what are the chances that she would have remembered Masaan or Chauthi Koot? They say that we get the leaders that we deserve. Guess that holds true for our movie stars, as well.