India will walk the red carpet at the 12-day Cannes Film Festival, beginning 16 May, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence and the Cannes Film Festival.

The India participation will be lead by senior ministry of Information and Broadcasting officials, industry leaders, film stars, over 80 companies, 20 exhibitors who will position themselves taking 150 films (mainly for the market section) and 35 new projects at Palais and the India Pavilion on the sea front along the ritzy croisette.

CII National Entertainment Committee chairman Bobby Bedi said, "We will do business, promote our product and work on co-production deals. The idea is to get to the world audiences to see Indian Cinema and become familiar with our new young aesthetic language." This year's efforts for India's participation have been coordinated by the CII Brand India Committee headed by Infosys CEO and managing director Nandan Nilekani.

Apart from being the partner country at the opening dinner of the Cannes Film Market, seven Indian films will be screened during the 'India focus' days allotted in the 'All Cinemas of the World' section. To commemorate the occasion, the I&B ministry will be hosting an 'India Party' on 18 May at the Majestic Beach.

The seven Indian movies selected for this section include Saira (Malayalam), Missed Call (Hindi/English), Guru (Hindi), Dosar (Bengali), Veyil (Tamil), Dharm (Hindi) and Lage Raho Munnabhai (Hindi).

"The coincidence of 60th anniversary of Indian independence and Festive de Cannes is a golden opportunity. By the sheer diversity of styles, subjects, and languages we can truly say that Indian cinema is the very expression of democracy," said Serge Sobczynski, head of the All Cinemas of the World section, Cannes Film Festival.

India is also the spotlight country at the Producers' Network this year. The Indian Pavilion, organised by CII, at the Village International has representation from across the country and participation includes production companies, line producers, over 40 independent film-makers, post production studios and exporters. Film and TV Guild of India, Film Federation of India and South Indian Film Exporters Association are also part of the Pavilion.

CII has brought out the 'India Big Picture book' - an essential guide to connect with the movie business and this will be released at Cannes on May 17. The objective of India showcase at the India Pavilion is to promote India as a shooting and post production hub, facilitate India pavilion members to meet sales agents and producers, promote International Film Festival of India, Goa (November 23 to December 3, 2007) and Goa Content Market (organized by CII) (November 23 to 27, 2007). Over a dozen Indian movies are being screened at the Cannes Film Market.