Kanu Behl at Cannes 2023: India needs a fresh story to be represented on a global platform

With Indian films winning Oscars and actors headlining international projects, the image of India on global platforms is changing. But when it comes to the changing perspective of Indian stories through our films, filmmaker Kanu Behl feels that there is still a lot that needs to change.

The director is at the ongoing 76th Cannes Film Festival for the screening of his film Agra, which has been selected in the Directors’ Fortnight section.

Asked about how the perception of Indian cinema has changed globally, Kanu said, "There is a specific gaze on Indian cinema for global audiences, but I don't know how to bracket it. I think that the international audience is still stuck in Satyajit Ray's films and the era where India is portrayed as just a crowded country, full of colour, and emotional people who are not threatening in anyway. And then there is another portrayal of India as a country that is unsafe for women. If you look at the kind of Indian films being screened at international film festivals, you will see that the stories more or less fall into the two brackets that I just mentioned."

The filmmaker went on to add that better representation is needed to change the overall image of our cinema on a global scale.

Kanu explained, "I actually have a personal grudge on this matter and feel that the kind of Indian story that we know has not been represented on international platforms. I know that leads to a vicious cycle: they only know as much about us as we tell them, so the same old beliefs get reinforced. I do not think that we are telling stories with a fresh, new belief because we are a country with complex cultures and a growing economy, with the fast disappearance of the middle class. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and there is a huge economic divide. There is a complete collapse of nuanced conversation, and that is sad. That's not who we used to be; we used to debate and analyse, and we had more nuances in conversations. It was never black and white."

"Somewhere we are living in a world where we cannot make up our minds or form an opinion by taking a centre position; we are forced to go either right or left. Earlier, we used to see good and bad from every side objectively before forming an opinion. Woj nuance chala ja raha hai," the director said, signing off.

Agra is an Indo-French co-production by Saregama India Ltd., UFO Production, and O28 Films. It received a spectacular response after it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.