What makes the news sweeter is that the film, “Udaan”, has been made by a debutant director, Vikramaditya Motwane. Produced by Anurag Kashyap and Sanjay Singh, the two-hour-18-minute-long film will be screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.
Motwane’s film will share space with Jean-Luc Godard’s “Socialisme” and 16 other films in the section.
The last time an Indian film was part of the official selection was in 2003, when Murali Nair’s Malayalam film “Arimpara (A Story that Begins at the End)” was in the Un Certain Regard section. The year before that, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Devdas” was screened in the Out of Competition section. The last time an Indian film was in the high-profile Competition section was in 1994, when Shaji N Karun’s “Swaham” got the honour.
Motwane has earlier assisted Bhansali in “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” and “Devdas” and also directed the song sequences and was choreographer on Deepa Mehta’s Oscar-nominated film “Water”.
Meanwhile, Kapur, whose “Bandit Queen” was part of the Section parallèle of the festival in 1994, will serve on the Competition jury headed by American director Tim Burton. The other members of the jury Kate Beckinsale (UK), Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Italy), Alberto Barbera (Italy), Emmanuel Carrere (France), Benicio Del Toro (Puerto Rico) and Victor Erice (Spain).
The Un Certain Regard jury will be headed by French director Claire Denis, while its other members will be announced later. The Cinefondation and Short Film jury will be headed by Canadian director Atom Egoyan, French actress Emmanuelle Devos, Russian actress Dinara Droukarova, Brazilian director Carlos Diegues and Spanish director Marc Recha. The festival will kick off on May 12.
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