| Dealmaking is hotting up — but are rumours overshadowing reality?
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| The Chopard party was a hit. It was honouring Indian cinema and, apart from Karan Johar and Preity Zinta, there were 10 Indians, two of them diamond merchants.
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| I have always believed that people do business with people they are familiar with. The success of the India Everywhere campaign at Davos was a great start in this direction, and Aishwariya Rai has certainly done her bit in this direction.
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| I believe that the success of Indian cinema will be the best vehicle for this campaign. This is what should be our umbrella agenda at Cannes because it is clear the world wants to know all about India and things Indian.
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| The ground reality is different. The India pavilion and the Adlabs "adda" are meant to be watering holes for "in between" meeting times and for hosting meetings when you have nowhere to go. I wish more of that was happening. These places are becoming village wells for everyone to gather and gossip and to hold clannish meetings to discuss the relevance of film festivals and co-production treaties, things best discussed at forums where hotel nights are cheaper than ¤600.
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| The other surprising reality is the narrow focus of our TV press that wants only Indian stars. Why Star, NDTV and Aaj Tak came all the way to France to interview Preity and Karan is a mystery that I will never fathom.
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| However, the action is warming up. I saw three Indian groups meeting buyers at the Carlton terrace, a Pakistani distributor was seen negotiating a big Indian film, an Indian sales person was in heated discussion with a Japanese buyer, and rumour has it that a big deal has been struck with an Indian production house and Columbia Tristar
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| Other interesting stories of great deals on Bollywood blockbusters are doing the rounds and big numbers are being talked about. Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Entertainment and president of the Film and Television Producers' Guild is confident that the sales of Indian films will treble in value in the overseas market.
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| I know for a fact that Germany has made huge offers, three to four times larger than before, so there is definitely some action there.
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| On a less businesslike note, Jag Mundhra's Provoked was screened yesterday, followed by a party at the Hilton. The film is about real-life Kiran Ahluwalia who was so abused by her husband that she got fed up and burned him alive. The film will find huge support from the Asian community in the UK and should cross over as the issue is universal.
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| Tonight's big event is the party hosted by the Film and TV Producers' Guild of India followed by a do on Ashok Amritraj's boat. I am sure the usual suspects will be there, and we will know more tomorrow. |
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