Cannes 2014: Uday Chopra's on the red carpet with Nicole Kidman

It is again that time of the year when the headturner of film festivals makes its entrance: the 67th Cannes Film Festival is here. This means red carpets crowded with gorgeous people in gorgeous designer wear. This year’s opening film was Grace of Monaco, a biopic of the actress Grace Kelly, starring Nicole Kidman as the beautiful Hollywood star. The red carpet saw Kidman, statuesque as ever, along with her co-star Tim Roth (he plays Prince Rainier of Monaco in the film) and — brace yourself — Uday Chopra. [caption id=“attachment_1525811” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  (Extreme right) Uday Chopra with Nicole Kidman (centre, wearing white dress) Courtesy: Festival De Cannes Twitter account[/caption] In case you were wondering, Chopra wasn’t part of the star cast of Grace of Monaco. He was there as a producer. Grace of Monaco was co-produced by YRF Entertainment. This would sound a lot more awesome if Grace of Monaco wasn’t being widely dubbed one of the worst opening films in Cannes history. While Kidman has received praise for her portrayal, the film hasn’t got much love from critics. But hey, it did open Cannes and thanks to it, the list of Bollywood peeps who have walked the red carpet at Cannes has gone up by one. Grace of Monaco isn’t the only film that YRF has brought to Cannes this year. The studio also backed Dibakar Banerjee Productions’ film Titli, directed by debutant Kanu Behl. Titli has been selected for the Un Certain Regard section. Behl’s film is set in Delhi, where a young boy wants to get out of the family business of carjacking. Behl has said that the film draws upon his own experiences of conflict with his father. This year’s selection of films in competition at the festival is filled with Cannes favourites and big names, including Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language, Two Days One Night by the Dardennes brothers, David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, Clouds of Sils Maria by Oliver Assayas, Jimmy’s Hall by Ken Loach, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep and Mr Turner by Mike Leigh. The first among these to be screened was Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, which has been described as an Aesop Fable-like story about the injustices that can arise from following Sharia Law. So far though, the film that has really made critics go gaga is Leigh’s Mr Turner. This period film — Leigh’s first in almost 15 years — is set in the 19th century and is about the British painter JMW Turner, played by Timothy Spall. In his review, The Guardian’s film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote, “Every scene in this film is expertly managed; every comic line and funny moment adroitly presented and every performance given with intelligence and love. It is another triumph for Mike Leigh and for Timothy Spall.” There are already whispers about which film might win the coveted Palme d’Or prize. Apparently one dark horse contender is Damon Szifron’s Wild Tales, a film that is supposed to “wake up” festival-goers (according to festival director Thierry Fremaux). And that’s just day one.