Odisha-born producer Jitendra Mishra to promote ten films at Cannes fest

Odisha-born producer Jitendra Mishra on Monday said he will represent and promote ten meaningful Indian films during the 68th Cannes International Film Festival in France.

Odisha-born producer Jitendra Mishra on Monday said he will represent and promote ten meaningful Indian films during the 68th Cannes International Film Festival in France.

The fest will be held May 13-25.

Mishra was at the festival last year for Solila Parida’s award winning Hollywood film “Desires of the Heart”, which was premiered at the film market of the Cannes gala, and was well received by the audience.

“Film represents much more than entertainment; this is the most powerful medium to depict the reality and emulate values,” the New Delhi-based filmmaker told IANS.

Mishra is travelling to the festival for ten days with some other Indian feature films and documentaries this year with an objective to spread the essence of Indian cinema among the larger international audience.

“India produces more than 100 meaningful cinemas having great potential every year, but only a few of them reach to a logical end. This is because there is still a gap between the independent films and the world market,” he said.

Mishra has developed a special film platform where he is trying to be the bridge between meaningful cinema and international markets, in terms of taking them to the global platform, apart from primarily producing issue-based films.

“I’m going to present a slate of ten feature films in the upcoming 68th Cannes film festival this year,” said Mishra, who has earlier promoted movies like “I Am Kalam”, “Desires of the Heart” and “Chausar”.

He is representing four award winning children’s feature films in the film market. Produced by Children’s Film Society India (CFSI), these are “Gattu”, “The World of Goopi & Bagha”, “Kaphal” and “Pappu Ki Pugdandi”.

He has also scheduled the market premier of two feature films during the 68th Cannes festival as part of the market screening section. These are Madhureeta Anand’s award winning film “Kajarya” and Judhajit Sarkar’s “Goatspeak”, both produced by Delhi-based production house Starfire Movies.

“Kajarya” deals with the pertinent topic of sex selection in India and violence against women. It is a thriller that pans across the city and village and tells the story of two women who collide in a world where baby girls better be dead.

The film has already travelled to more than 10 international film festivals so far and won couple of awards and will be screened at Cannes on May 16.

Similarly Naseeruddin Shah starrer “Goatspeak” tells about the freewheeling passion of youth and the unpredictable perils of fate. It is the tale of 22-year-old Salma’s journey through kinship, friendship, love, failure, and success in the boxing ring.

Based against the backdrop of Topsia area of Kolkata, it will be screened on May 17.

Mishra has been the world sales and distribution consultant of these films.

Source:: Indian Express