Indywood delegate Sinseer Mohammed who attended the recent Cannes Film Festival writes about the launch of Indywood TV, networking activities and other collaborative partnerships signed by Indywood at the festival.   

It’s something to be at Cannes. Home to the most famous film festival in the world!

Four of us, including the Founding Director of the $10 billion Project Indywood, Mr. Sohan Roy, had been invited this year to attend the Festival de Cannes from May 17-28. Rubbing shoulders with the who’s who of the global film industry, including Indian superstars such as AR Rahman, Arya and Jayam Ravi, this year was special since we launched our very own channel, Indywood TV, in the presence of renowned celebrities from the Indo-French film industries. Incidentally, Indywood TV was the only Indian channel to get Red Carpet entry in the Cannes Festival.

A specialty entertainment channel, Indywood TV is a 24/7 entertainment channel with special focus on movie centric programmes and shows in English. It is the only project-oriented channel in India which exclusively covers all areas of the film industry on a single platform with a vision of integrating the whole Indian film industry. The immense potential it holds is very exciting for us at Indywood, since we see in it a great avenue for youngsters to showcase their talents to the right audience.

Apart from this, we also honoured and felicitated organizations such as the Tokyo International Film Festival , Austrian Film Commissions & Funds , Eurimages , Sharjah International Children's Film Festival , Dubai International Film Festival , National Bank of Canada , Film London ,Romanian Film Centre , Le Film Francais , Festival International De Films De Fribourg , Rija Films (Latvia )  and Shah production (Pakistan), for their exemplary contributions to the film industry.

We were also delighted to have dignitaries like Sheikha Jawaher Bint Abdullah Al Qasimi (inset), Director of FUNN and Sharjah International Children's Film Festival, Susan Newman of Eurimages, and Takeo Hisamatsu of Tokyo International Film Festival, evince interest to join as members of Indywood’s International Expert Committee.

Most of all, Cannes lived up to its reputation as an ideal destination for B2B networking. Over the course of the one week that we stayed there, we interacted with several international production agencies and partners, generating leads worth several million dollars, for potential investments into the Indian film industry.