Madhur Bhandarkar: Indian cinema is slowly, steadily definitely making a mark globally

Madhur Bhandarkar has been to the Cannes film festival twice before, and he is only happier that this year India was declared the official country of honour there. “I remember in 2019, I had gone for the India pavilion. It was a great experience to interact with so many filmmakers. There were so many producers, technicians, who are very much aware of the kind of films we make in our Indian film industry,” he recalls.

Has our cinema always been given a lot of importance internationally, or the world is only now waking up to the potential we hold? The National Award- winning director says, “Honestly, it has been growing slowly and steadily. We are definitely leaving a mark. I had gone there in 2011 to launch my film Heroine. And then eight years later. We had phenomenal reach in that span. I will not use the term Bollywood, but Indian cinema. People around the world have interacted with my films Corporate, Fashion and Traffic Signal. It’s been almost 10 years since I have been taking my films globally.”

He attributes it all to the rise of OTT platforms for Indian cinema reaching out to a wider audience. Bhandarkar says, “The world has become very narrow. We have social media as well, people are aware and want to see films on the various platforms available. There was a time when even we would see only English films, but since the OTT phenomena we also watch French, Spanish cinema.”

And he is all praises for Deepika Padukone, who has been invited as a jury member this year. “It’s so great. She’s a big brand, who better than her for taking India to Cannes,” he ends.