New Delhi:
Women in the Indian film fraternity are making our nation proud. From Payal Kapdia’s Grand Prix win at the Cannes Film Festival 2024 and Guneet Monga winning an Academy Award, to Anasuya Sengupta receiving the Best Actress trophy at the 77th Cannes Film Festival and Kiran Rao’s film Laapataa Ladies being selected as India’s official Oscar entry, their achievements are remarkable. Today, Anasuya Sengupta spoke at the NDTV World Summit, discussing how Indian cinema is reaching a global audience. She also highlighted how trailblazers like Payal Kapadia and Kiran Rao have paved the way for young artists.
Speaking about India’s abundant talent, Anasuya Sengupta said, “It feels like the rest of the world is kind of sitting up a little bit and looking at what has always been there. It is not that we have not had brilliant filmmakers and actors and actresses and all kinds of artists. But the reach in the last 20 years has just been increasing with social media. I do think people are taking stock of talent coming out of India a lot more now. I think it is just us getting our dues and I hope it happens even more now.”
Highlighting the contributions of women in the Indian entertainment industry, Anasuya Sengupta stated, “In the last 10 odd years there has been a lot more women-led voices in the art and there is a difference. There are wonderful films like Laapataa Ladies, which is our official entry. What a proud moment! And Payal Kapadia‘s win at the Grand Prix, which is entirely a story of female friendships. It is a time for more women’s voices, the world over anyway. and more so for our country because we have been working on it for a long time…We have been standing on the shoulders of giants. There has been tireless work by fantastic and brilliant women for so many many years, who have done it perhaps even without due recognition. So now, it is on us to take it forward.”
Talking up about her Cannes win, Anasuya said, “It’s really beyond anything I had ever anticipated. It was a moment of deep pride to be on a global stage alongside extremely talented people from the fraternity. It has been a fabulous year for our country at Cannes. It felt like everything was finally bearing fruit. I personally believe we are steadily moving toward a time where all these divisions are blurring. It’s a great time to thrive and recognize that ‘art is art, cinema is cinema,’ and there is room for all kinds of it. There is mainstream, there is non-mainstream—everything is coming closer together now. Taking independent cinema from India to a global stage was a moment of deep pride because it’s difficult for some of these projects to get off the ground, and it requires dedication.”
Anasuya Sengupta made history this year as the first Indian to win a top acting award at the Cannes Film Festival. She received the Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard segment for her performance in the film The Shameless. Directed by Bulgarian filmmaker Constantin Bojanov, the movie also features Mita Vashist.
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