Cannes 2022: AR Rahman, Akshay Kumar among celebs to walk with I&B minister Anurag Thakur

The Red Carpet event at the 75th Cannes Film Festival will be a gala event for the Indian audience as celebrities from the cine world across India are set to walk there as part of the Indian delegation on the festival's opening day, May 17.

 Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur will lead the delegation from India to Cannes. The list of celebrities will also comprise stars from major music industries across India. The delegation will include actor-producer R Madhavan , Akshay Kumar , music composer AR Rahman, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui , Pooja Hegde and Nayanthara along with CBFC Chief Prasoon Joshi, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and music composer Ricky Rej amongst others.

 At a time when India is celebrating the 75th year of its independence and has launched 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', India and France are also celebrating 75 years of their association as is the annual Cannes Film Festival. Further, for the first time in its history, India has been named the official 'Country of Honour' at the upcoming Marche' Du Film, which is organized alongside the Cannes Film Festival, in France. Under this title 5 new Start-Ups will be given an opportunity to pitch to the Audio-Visual Industry. Ten professionals will participate in Animation Day.

Among the highlights of this year's festival will be the world premiere of the film by R. Madhavan titled ' Rocketry : The Nambi Effect', a biographical drama film based on the life of Nambi Narayanan , a former scientist and aerospace engineer of the Indian Space Research Organisation who was falsely accused of espionage. The film which is produced by Madhavan will be showcased on May 19.

 India has also been given an opportunity to pitch 5 selected movies at the 'Goes to Cannes Section'. These films are part of the WIP lab under the Film Bazaar. A Cinema Hall called the Olympia Screen has been dedicated to India on May 22, 2022, for screening 'Unreleased Movies'. There are 5 Movies which have been selected under this category. Also, a remastered classic of Satyajit Ray Classic - 'Pratidwandi' will be screened at the Cannes Classic section. This is to mark his centenary celebration.

This year's Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 17 to May 26 and the organisers have done away with wearing masks or asking for any COVID tests. (ANI)