Mainstream crossover

CANNES BIZ BUZZ/ Bobby Bedi

First the parties. This was the big party weekend. I am temporarily seeking membership into the "herd" and ignoring the big international dos "" such as the Vanity Fair party and the Balkan affair, with perhaps the best brass band in the world.

We Indians did ourselves proud. The Guild party was elegant, well attended, and the food was probably the best of the parties I attended. The Amritraj do on his boat for the Indian contingent was, again, really pleasant. To the list of the usual suspects were added Ajay and Sanjay Bijli.

Last night was really something else "" a party hosted by two sardars, HS and Serena Narula (both not connected with films) in an Irish pub with Indian film personality posters and Kajrare playing in the background. The cuisine was Indian "" paneer, chicken and mutton tikka flown in from London on their private jet.

The late night event hosted by Eros was more of a business affair. The venue chosen was the Chopard pavilion and the event was promoting Vishal Bhardwaj's new Ajay Devgan-Saif Ali Khan-Viveik Oberoi starrer Onkara, based on Othello.

This is the second Shakespeare adaptation he has done, the first being Maqbool (based on Macbeth). It will hopefully be as good. The presentation was definitely international, the crowd very mixed and all the stars attended.

Business is definitely happening. Deals are being struck but for obvious reasons, they are not being discussed. The really fascinating thing here is the level of interest in India. I was at the German pavilion yesterday and it was great to hear their view on mainstream Indian cinema. It appears that the price Germany pays for Indian products has trebled over the last year, and that is because the Germans, unlike the NRIs, are watching our films.

What is even more interesting is that they are watching films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and not our so-called art house crossover attempts.

Couple this with the reception Bollywood got in Paris last month (crowds in a frenzy over Shahrukh Khan), and you know that our export is Bollywood in its classic form: definitely high quality, but equally definitely, aesthetic.

This seems to be the message that Cannes is giving the Indian delegation, and this is the message we should take home and develop as an export "" not just for cinema but for Brand India, so that wherever we go (whether it be world economic forums or Bollywood shows), we can extend its scope to merchandising and fashion. If we succeed, we will become familiar to the world, and this familiarity will generate new business opportunities.

The message I'm taking home from Cannes is that India is definitely as visible here as it was at Davos and that Brand Bollywood exists. Sensibly developed, packaged and marketed, it will become the leading brand for India and help fuel the process of making India prominent on the world map.