- guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 May 2002 10.37 BST
The pair arrived at yesterday's premiere for what is believed to be Bollywood's most expensive film in a horse drawn carriage and disported themselves glamorously on the Palais du Festival's red carpet in a manner that banished the memory of Sharon Stone and Cameron Diaz doing the same thing earlier this week.
This is the first time that a commercial Hindi film has been shown in the festival which is in its 55th year, a fact which director Sanjay Lella Bhansali said should send westerners off to discover the rich heritage of Bollywood. "It's taken years for us to reach out beyond our own country and be accepted here. But this won't change the way we make films," he said.
And that includes the chaste depiction of romantic love, a fact which baffled cinephiles expecting more explicit fare. Never before in Cannes has a three hour romantic film been shown without any kissing, still less without the leads getting it on in a meaningful sense. "It's the kind of upbringing we have," said Bhansali.
Set in 1940s Calcutta, the film tells the story of the return of Devdas from London to his home and to his childhood love Parvo.
But circumstances (class snobbery, family rivalry) drive these star-crossed lovers apart and Devdas seeks oblivion in drink and solace with a glamorous, though apparently under employed, prostitute, before the fraught denouement.
This year's Cannes has a big Indian presence. There has been a season of films starring one of the greatest Indian film icons, the late Raj Kapoor. India's pavilion on La Croisette, where many of the festival's film deals are clinched, is more than double last year's size. The world's biggest film producing country is mounting a big push to promote itself globally, both in terms of exporting the work of indigenous film-makers and encouraging international film productions to be made in India.
Anjuly Chib Duggal from the Indian ministry of information and broadcasting said: "We are the biggest film industry in the world and we want higher visibility."
