Cannes film festival which opens this week sees no Indian film in its competitive category, very few screened in its non-competition section and a few film stars attending.

The only official Indian screening is of filmmaker Vijay Anand’s Guide that will be screened in the non-competitive classics section at the festival and the film’s star and producer Dev Anand will introduce the film whose restored print will be used for this special screening.

Guide, directed by Vijay Anand, will be screened alongside such classics as Max Ophuls’ Lola Montes (1955), Jean Cocteau’s Orphee (1949) and the late Sri Lankan master Lester James Peries’ Gamperaliya (1965), among several other timeless gems.

The only other Indian who will “officially” participate in the Cannes film festival this year is the Mumbai-based movie critic and writer, Anupama Chopra.
She is on the jury of the ‘Un Certain Regard sidebar’, which is a section of the festival’s official section. The five-member jury is headed by Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin and includes a critic each from Russia and Egypt.

On the sidelines of the glitzy festival, a host of Bollywood corporate entities will unveil a slew of new products and announce their respective plans for the future. This includes the debut of two new companies Reliance Big Entertainment and NDTV Lumiere. The other major companies involved in buying and selling content at the Cannes market place include Eros, UTV, Saregama, Multivision, Alliance Media, PVR, Shemaroo, Palador, Studio 18, Moser Baer, WSG Pictures and Ultra.

Animation meets mythology in Ghatotkach, a film by National Award winning filmmaker, S Srinivasa Rao which will be screened on May 17 in the Palais C section.

Also present will be Aishwarya Bachchan who is brand ambassador for L’Oreal one of the sponsors at Cannes and at her arm will be hubby Abhishekh Bachchan who will be promoting his film ‘Dilli 6’ which will be show cased during this film festival.

Other contributors from Dilli 6 including director, Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra and its leading lady Sonam Kapoor are also expected to attend its screening

Another Indian presence will be Priety Zinta who is brand ambassador for Chopard.

But the most amount of excitement is the news that Ambanis and their Reliance Big Entertainment are all set to announce around 10 Hollywood co-productions with A-list stars such as Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.