Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil
When Shabana Azmi walked Cannes' red carpet in 1976, there wasn't much hype about the Indian actor. She was accompanied by Smita Patil and filmmaker Shyam Benegal for their film Nishant. As Indian celebrities gear up to take over Cannes' red carpet, the veteran actress recalled the moment saying that they had no advertising material and no money to promote their film. The two actors walked the red carpet and urged everyone to watch t5heir film and it turned to be a houseful for them. She also posted a photo of the three.
"At Cannes for #Nishant 1976. We had no publicity material and no money so #Shyam Benegal asked #Smita Patil and me to wear our best saris and walk up and down the promenade to attract attention . And when people turned around to stare at these strange looking exotic creatures we would persuasively plead “ Our film is showing on so and so date pls come to watch it “ and we managed a full house ! lThat was the advertising acumen of #Shyam Benegal," she captioned the image.
Talking about Cannes 2022, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur is in France to attend the Cannes Film Festival, where India has been named as the 'country of honour' for 'Marche du Film', the business counterpart of the marquee event.
Thakur was received by India's Ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf on Tuesday.
He is set to walk the red carpet at the festival this evening, besides meeting Charles H Rivkin, chairman and chief executive officer of Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) and Stan McCoy, president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa of the MPAA.
Thakur will lead the Indian delegation comprising top personalities including Shekhar Kapur, A R Rahman, Prasoon Joshi, R Madhavan, Tamannaah Bhatia, Vani Tripathi, Pooja Hegde and folk artist Mame Khan for the red carpet event ahead of the screening of opening film "Coupez" (Final Cut) by Michel Hazanavicius.
Popular actor Akshay Kumar too was part of the official delegation, but had to opt out after he tested positive for Covid-19.
