India’s Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan, who yesterday inaugurated the India Pavilion at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, said the country’s “timeless tradition of storytelling” was increasingly being recognised around the world.

“You will not find too many Hollywood films these days that do not have names of Indians in the credits, especially in the VFX and animation departments,” the Minister, who walked the red carpet wearing the traditional vesti, said.

He, according to a PTI report from Cannes, France, went on to point out that the foundations of “our creative economy” are so strong that “India is well placed to become the world’s leading content creator”.

Referring to the Oscar win this year by Kartiki Gonsalves’ short documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, the Minister said the story of Bomman and Bellie is set in Mudumalai, which is close to his hometown.

“The film has touched the hearts of people across the world,” he added.

The producer of ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, Guneet Monga, was seated on the dais. Among others present on the occasion were also actors Vijay Varma and Sara Ali Khan.

Pointing out that India is the world’s largest producer of films, making over 3,000 films in over 50 languages that carry a message of the country’s strength in storytelling across the world, a government statement in New Delhi stated that the junior Minister highlighted “good content knows no boundaries and we are witnessing an era where Indian content is going local to global”.

Dr Murugan also highlighted that the Indian M&E sector is poised to experience an extraordinary growth rate of 11.4 percent in 2023, propelling its revenue to a staggering INR 2.36 trillion.

This remarkable surge is a testament to the robustness of India’s M&E industry and its potential to create novel opportunities, even in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the official statement quoted the Minister as saying.

He further added that after the Covid pandemic, the gross box office revenues of 2022 in India increased almost three times the revenues of 2021 to $1.3 billion and is expected to touch $ 3 billion by 2025.

Dr Murugan pitched India as an attractive movie destination for foreign films and said that the government is committed to develop India as a magnet for international movie industry including shooting, co-production, animation and low-cost post-production.

Last year at Cannes, the government had unveiled an attractive cash incentive scheme for foreigners to shoot in India.

Dr. Murugan, who spoke after his senior Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur had addressed the attendees via a video recorded message, also unveiled the poster of the upcoming 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa in November.

The Pavilion has been designed by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, using the colours associated with the Hindu goddess of learning Saraswati and the Indian national flag.