Uttar Pradesh won't take part in Cannes Film festival this year

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government that had touted its film-friendly status in the previous Akhilesh regime, will no longer be participating in the upcoming Cannes Film festival.

The Film Facilitation Office of the National Film Development Corporation had sent an invitation to the UP government to participate in the Marche Du Film (Cannes Film Market/Marche) which is held alongside the Cannes Festival. The same has been turned down by the Yogi Adityanath government.

Mr Avanish Kumar Awasthi, principal secretary, (Information) UP, confirmed that there will be no participation from the state at the French film festival.

“The Cannes Film Festival will be held in the middle of this month and we are in the process of reviewing out film policy. Hence we will not be attending the event this year,” he said. He added that the government will review whether the state had benefitted from the Cannes visit last year

He further said that the UP film policy was under the scanner. The Akhilesh government had doled out a subsidy of '2 crore to every filmmaker who shot more than 75 per cent of the film in the state.

Uttar Pradesh has also conferred the ‘Most Film Friendly State’ award in the 64th National Awards, this year.

When asked about the subsidy to be given to films like Jolly LLB 2, Nil Battey Sannata, Bareilly Ki Barfi and Behen Hogi Teri, Mr Awasthi, who is also the chairman of the UP Film Bandhu unit, said that the papers of these films are yet to be scrutinised.

This decision, sources said, will affect around 200 filmmakers who have submitted their papers for subsidy for their films.