Cannes, May 22 (IANS): A united face of India is missing at the ongoing 67th Cannes Film Festival, the world's largest film fest in the South of France, where the country and its cinema are sought to be showcased by three different institutions.
This has upset Marche Du Films, organisers of the Cannes Film Market, who have to deal with another new coordinator of the Indian Pavilion this year at the gala.
Leading Indian film industry associations argued that a scattered India was presented with no focus and branding at the festival, which started May 14 here.
Industry experts at Cannes maintained that many other nations are present both at the village and exhibition area, but branding was common at all places.
This has created immense confusion among foreign delegates who could not decipher what India intended to focus upon at Cannes, which brings show business professional from over 100 countries.
Leading film studios, including Yash Raj Films, Disney India UTV, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Fox Star Studios India, and Eros International, managed business independently on their own.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in partnership with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), a subsidiary of the I&B ministry, presented Indian Cinema at Cannes this year.
Initially, during the previous NDA regime in 2002, the I&B ministry made CII, FICCI and NFDC jointly manage the India Pavilion. From 2003 to 2007, CII managed the India Pavilion, later this was done by industry chamber Assocham (from 2008 to 2010) and NFDC managed it from 2011 to 2013.
This year, the India Pavilion at the Village International is organised by the I&B ministry in partnership with FICCI.
NFDC is promoting Cinemas of India at the exhibition area with a few completed and under-production films.
CII pooled a divergent group of exhibiting companies in the entertainment space (state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra promoting film tourism, Services Export Promotion Council and mid-sized film production companies) in an 80 sq metre space in the Palais exhibition and market area.
The Ministry of Tourism, which positioned Incredible India!, which was part of the India Pavilion for the last three years, opted out this year.
However, together with the Ministry of Tourism, the Indian Embassy in France and Air India, Indian artist Sudarsan Pattnaik created sand sculptures of legendary movie director Satyajit Ray, Taj Mahal and Incredible India at the Cannes beach.