Mumbai: The Cannes film festival is set for its 75th edition this year. And there will be an Indian connection in the prestigious festival to be held from May 17.
Among the jury members will be Bollywood diva Deepika Padukone.
The other members of the jury will be French actor Vincent Lindon (president), Rebecca Hall (England), Noomi Rapace (Sweden), directors Jasmine Trinca (Italy), Asghar Farhadi (Iran), Ladj Ly (France), Jeff Nichols (the US) and Joachim Trier (Norway).
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“It is a great honour and source of pride to be entrusted, in the midst of the tumult of all the events we are going through in the world, with the splendid, weighty task of chairing the Jury of the 75th International Cannes Film Festival. With my Jury, we will strive to take the best possible care of the films of the future, all of which carry the same secret hope of courage, loyalty, and freedom, with a mission to move the greatest number of women and men by speaking to them of their common wounds and joys. Culture helps the human soul to rise and hope for tomorrow,” said Lindon.
Deepika joins a list of eminent Indian personalities who have served as Jury members at Cannes.
Here are Deepika’s predecessors:
* Mrinal Sen (director) – Served Cannes member in 1982; his film Kharij won Cannes Jury Prize in 1983.
* Mira Nair (filmmaker and producer) – Cannes jury member in 1990; her film Salaam Bombay won the Audience Award at 1988 Cannes festival.
* Arundhati Roy (author) — Cannes jury member in 2000; her novel ‘The God of Small Things’ won the Booker Prize in 1997
* Aishwarya Rai (actress) — first Indian actress to be named member of Cannes jury in 2003
* Nandita Das (actor and director) – Served as Cannes jury member twice – for feature films in 2005 and Cinefondation and Short films in 2013; her film Manto was screened at Cannes in 2018
* Sharmila Tagore (actress) — Served as special jury member of 2009 Cannes Festival; her film Devi was in competition in the feature film category in 1962.
* Shekhar Kapur (director, producer, actor) — Served as jury member in 2010
* Vidya Balan (actress) – Cannes Jury member in 2013.
Note: Filmmaker Chetan Anand was the first Indian invited to be member of the 1950 Cannes Festival, but he politely refused saying he did not qualify to be a part of such an enlightened panel.
