Over the past couple of years, the prestigious Cannes Film Festival has been subject to a new form of criticism. The red carpet of the film festival has long been a glamorous ramp for beautiful people to showcase wonderful fashion, the invitees are traditionally people from the world of film, or film-adjacent, such as models, producers, and rich financiers. But the last few editions have seen a new category of attendees: influencers.
This year too, a host of Indian (and foreign) influencers descended upon the French Riviera and created content around the festival – but not about it. By overshadowing the films themselves, culture critics point out, the influencers are taking attention away from those who truly deserve it (a point I mostly concur with, though it begs the question: how many of us even cared about Cannes before the influencers were there?). This critique has been further magnified by allegations from industry insiders that the influencers’ ‘I made it to Cannes!’ posts may not be all that genuine, since they actually pay their way to the festival – spending lakhs of rupees just to proclaim that they made it there.
All this has led to widespread panning of all the influencers who have ‘made it’ to Cannes, with one exception. Nancy Tyagi, a 23-year-old fashion influencer from Uttar Pradesh. ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD Nancy, The Underdog Who ‘Made It’ Nancy , who rose to fame with her Instagram reels of making outfits from scratch on her hand-powered s.
