An honour to be a part of Cannes jury: Vidya Balan

Mumbai, April 25 (IANS) Vidya Balan, who has been chosen to be member of the jury panel of the 66th edition of Cannes film festival, feels honoured.

"It feels great. It's a big honour for me to be on the jury of the most celebrated film festival in the world," the 34-year-old said here Wednesday at a special screening of "Aashiqui 2".

"Especially this year when Indian cinema completes 100 years, it becomes more special. I am looking forward to it," she added.

When asked if she would be biased towards Indian films, Vidya said, "We are churning out better movies by the day, so we definitely deserve to be competing with films from all over the world. There is no scope for partiality and our films don't need any of us to be partial, I think we deserve to be up there."

The judges' panel includes names like Hollywood star Nicole Kidman, director Ang Lee and jury president Steven Spielberg.

The film fest will start May 15.

Japanese director Naomi Kawase, British scriptwriter-director-producer Lynne Ramsay, French actor-director Daniel Auteuil, Romanian scriptwriter-director-producer Cristian Mungiu and Austrian actor Christopher Waltz are also members of the jury.