Deepika Padukone to be part of Cannes Film Festival jury
Mumbai: Bollywood star Deepika Padukone is part of the competition jury of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival along with prestigious names such as actor-filmmaker Rebecca Hall and Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, festival organisers announced.
Padukone, best known for her films “Piku”, “Padmaavat” and “Gehraiyaan” and Hollywood project xXx: The Return of Xander Cage”, is part of the eight-member jury which will reward one of the 21 films in competition with the coveted Palme d’Or during the closing ceremony on Saturday May 28.
French actor Vincent Lindon will be the President of the jury that also includes Swedish actor Noomi Rapace, Italian actor-director Jasmine Trinca, French filmmaker-actor Ladj Ly, filmmaker Jeff Nichols and director-screenwriter Joachim Trier from Norway.
In a statement, posted on the official website of the festival, Lindon said the jury “will strive to take the best possible care of the films of the future”.
“It is a great honour and source of pride to be entrusted, in the midst of the tumult of all the events we are going through in the world, with the splendid, weighty task of chairing the Jury of the 75th International Cannes Film Festival.
“With my jury, we will strive to take the best possible care of the films of the future, all of which carry the same secret hope of courage, loyalty, and freedom, with a mission to move the greatest number of women and men by speaking to them of their common wounds and joys. Culture helps the human soul to rise and hope for tomorrow,” Lindon said.
Late filmmaker Mrinal Sen was the first Indian to serve as jury member of Cannes back in 1982, followed by Indian-American director Mira Nair in 1990.
Author Arundhati Roy was a Cannes jury member for the festival’s 2000 edition, followed by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in 2003, Nandita Das in 2005, Sharmila Tagore in 2009, Shekhar Kapur in 2010 and Vidya Balan in 2013.
Padukone, 36, was earlier the chairperson of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival for two years.
She found fame with her 2007 film “Om Shanti Om”, co-starring Shah Rukh Khan, and later featured in several blockbuster and critically-acclaimed movies like “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani”, “Chennai Express”, “Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela”, “Bajirao Mastani”, “Padmaavat” and “Piku”.
The actor, who was most recently seen in Shakun Batra’s “Gehraiyaan”, made her Hollywood debut with the 2017 actioner “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage”, fronted by Vin Diesel.
Padukone has a busy slate of projects which includes Shah Rukh Khan-led “Pathan”, “Fighter” with Hrithik Roshan, an untitled movie with Prabhas and the Hindi remake of Hollywood movie “The Intern”.