After a tiring but nonetheless thrilling day spent attending press call, giving bytes and interviews to media gathered from all over the world, Amitabh Bachchan joined his cast and crew for the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival’s opening show ‘The Great Gatsby’, in which he plays a cameo. As he and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio stepped onto stage to declare the festival officially open, Amitabh Bachchan had a sweet surprise in store as he went on to address the audience in Hindi.
After thanking the Cannes film festival, Amitabh Bachchan spoke a few quick lines in Hindi dedicating it to his countrymen. ‘Indian Cinema has completed 100 years and on this occasion, I would like to express to Cannes Film festival my gratitude and thank them for inviting me here today and for honoring us in such a huge function’
The gesture was well appreciated by the organizers too, evident from a tweet Senior Bachchan posted later in the evening, ‘T 1109 -Director of Cannes delighted to hear the ‘music of the Hindi language’ spoken, it brought in the universality of the occasion!’
Over the next 12 days, dozens of the world’s most artistically ambitious films will premiere and compete on the Cannes’ global stage. The five Indian films that have made it to Cannes screening (but unfortunately still evaded from nomination at the official competition) are Anurag Kashyap’s UGLY (Directors Fortnight full line-up section), Ritesh Batra’s The LunchBox (Critics Week Full line-up section), Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout (Cannes Midnight screening), Satyajit Ray’s Charulata (as part of Cannes Classics) and lastly the recently released Bombay Talkies (in a gesture to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema)
