Nandita Das takes a dig at Cannes Film Festival: It is a festival of films, not of clothes
Nandita Das
Filmmaker-actress Nandita Das took a sly dig at Indian stars attending the Cannes Film Festival. Das, who served as a jury member at the festival in 2005, shared throwback photos from her time at Cannes on her Instagram page and mentioned that the event is actually about films and not fashion.
Nandita shared her pictures clicked with several celebrities such as Divya Dutta, Rasika Dugal, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Javier Bardem and Salma Hayek among others from their Cannes days. She wrote in the caption, “Sadly missing Cannes this year. Sometimes people seem to forget that it is a festival of films and not of clothes!”
"Considering I can’t show you the amazing films I watched or the conversations I have had or take you back in time when Manto premiered there. Here are a few images through the years in Cannes. And only the ones in Saris as there is a fair amount of chatter about the ‘celebrities who wore saris in Cannes’. Well, it is surely my go-to garment. Simple, elegant and Indian. Least fussy - easy to get in and get out of it!
“Each of the images have an interesting story behind it but too long to share. So feel free to make up your own story from the photos you see. And guess the year they are from - 2005, 20013, 2016-2018,” Das concluded the post.
Her Instagram post came a day after filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri took a dig at the festival and said, "Do you know that Cannes Film Festival is about films? I thought I should remind you just in case you were thinking it’s a fashion show.”
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Agreeing with him, actress Meera Chopra commented, “It's very sad, I said the same thing when I went there last year.. that it's become a fashion parade. Bollywood only talks about what you are wearing and where all you are being covered in media, to the extent that it becomes stressful. Believe me, it's not the same for other countries. They've not gone crazy like us on fashion and pr!”
Celebrities on Cannes 2023 red carpet
This year Indian presence at the festival has been huge. Apart from festival regulars Aishwarya Rai and Anurag Kashyap, this year Mrunal Thakur, Sara Ali Khan, Diana Penty, Manushi Chillar and Esha Gupta have all made their presence felt on the Cannes red carpet.
Only two Indian films have been selected for screening at the festival - Anurag Kashyap's Kennedy and Kanu Behl's Agra.
Richa Chadha, Ali Fazal, Urvashi Rautela, Sapna Choudhary, Shark Tank's Aman Gupta and Kumar Sanu's singer-daughter Shannon were also seen at the festival.
