New Delhi, May 19: Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur today addressed the India forum at the famous Palais des Festivals in Cannes starting with Hai Preet Jahan Ki Reet Sada, the famous lyrics from 1970’s movie Purab Aur Paschim

“है प्रीत जहां की रीत सदा, मैं गीत वहां के गाता हूं, भारत का रहने वाला हूं, भारत की बात सुनाता हूं “, carrying the tales of Bharat, Thakur addressed the India forum.

Representing a 6000 year old culture and 1.3 billion people the Minister delivered his keynote address in front of audience comprising foreign and Indian filmmakers, journalists and delegates.

This year marks the 75th year celebration of both Cannes Film Festival and of establishment of India-France diplomatic relations. Speaking on the importance of Cannes, the Minister said that over the years, ‘Festival de Cannes’ has played a significant role in strengthening Indo-French relations. The Minister noted the historic highs of Indian cinema and said that Indian content has been ruling the hearts and minds of the global audience and the stepping stone was laid by bestowing the Palme d’Or to the prolific Indian filmmaker Chetan Anand’s film Neecha Nagar in 1946 and a decade later in 1956, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali won the Palme d’Or. Today the recognition of our cinematic excellence the world over is set to manifest the country  into the ‘content hub of the world’, the Minister added.

Speaking on India’s current presence in Cannes the Minister said “India intends to give you – the global audience, a flavour of the country’s cinematic excellence, technological prowess, rich culture and illustrious heritage of storytelling”. “India’s red carpet presence captured the diversity of our cinematic excellence not only in terms of representation of actors and film makers from various languages and regions, but also OTT platforms, with a strong presence of music composers and a folk artist who have enthralled audiences both young and old”, the Minister further added.

The Minister informed the audience about the presence of Indian startups in Cannes and said the startups from media and entertainment sector will showcase their technological prowess and pitch to the best from the world of AVGC along with a strong delegation of animation professionals from the sector.

The Minister informed the audience of the various measures by both Union and State governments and said while Center has envisioned major initiatives over the last 8 years to boost co-productions, film shoots and film facilitations in India, States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have formulated their own film facilitation policies and provided co-production opportunities. He stated that these efforts are aimed at boosting India’s media and entertainment ecosystem, which is expected to generate USD 53 billion annually by 2025.

In one such measure, “Government of India officially designated audiovisual services as one of 12 ‘champion service sectors’ and recently set up an AVGC task force comprising of industry leaders to prepare a policy roadmap for India to take a quantum leap in this sector and position us as the preferred ‘post production hub of the world’ “.