(Photo: Doordarshan)

India’s public television broadcaster Doordarshan is providing special coverage of the Cannes Film Festival in France, which opened on 17 May.

India is officially the Country of Honour at the Cannes Film Market running parallel to the festival – the first time a country has been honoured in this way.

Doordarshan’s international channel DD India is the only TV news channel from India reporting live from the 12-day festival. A half-hour daily show, ‘India at Cannes’, is being shown each evening on DD India and DD News.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that as Country of Honour, India would be able to showcase its films, culture, heritage and linguistic diversity on the world stage.

He said India would promote itself as the content hub of the world and “post production hub” for global film makers. It has the world’s largest film industry, producing more than 1,800 movies annually.

India is screening six films at the market, including ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect,’ a drama based on the life of Nambi Narayanan, a scientist and aerospace engineer of the Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, who was falsely accused of espionage.