In terms of cinema, and cinema alone, India is making the kind of splash at Cannes 2024 that it has never done before. Eight Indian-produced or Indian-themed titles, including one in contention for the prestigious Palme d’Or and a 30-minute Virtual Reality piece in the festival’s inaugural Immersive Competition, are strewn across various sections of the 77th edition of the ongoing film festival, which concludes on May 25. “The Indian presence is extremely strong this year,” said Cannes deputy artistic director Christian Jeune at the start of the festival.

He should know, as he has been in charge of scouting Indian films for Cannes for over two decades. “India and China are important markets for films. They are making a strong comeback to Cannes,” the festival’s artistic director Thierry Frémaux had said at the press conference in Paris in the second week of April to announce the official selection.

In the forefront, taking Indian cinema places with their work, are industry names such as Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Radhika Apte, Mita Vashisht, Shahana Goswami, Chhaya Kadam (who has two films in the festival), Anasuya Sengupta and Omara Shetty . Never before have so many faces from the country’s independent cinema space landed in Cannes with something to show for their effort. “I feel the more regional the treatment of a film is, the more it speaks an international language,” said actor Kani in an earlier interview with The Hindu , after the selection of h.