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The Hindu : For those who think the cinematic road runs between Hollywood and Bollywood, this is the time tosit up and take notice. World cinema is coming in a big way to make its presence felt in the country. To start with, the French government is hosting afilm festival. Called Rendezvous with French Cinema, the festival, which started on January 27 in Mumbai, comes to town on February 1. The festival is being used as a tool to prepare ground for the theatrical release of the films on show. France is the first and only country to have a full-fledged Film Officeto promote French cinema in India and Indian cinema in France.Says Mohamed Bendjebbour, who heads the office,“Distribution houses like Shemaroo, Star Entertainment, UTV and PVR have shown interest in French films. The films shown in the festival will soon have commercial releases.”But beyond the ‘emotions have a universal appeal’ argument, does this genre make business sense? “It does, because of the rise in the number of multiplexes. Secondly, our estimates show that 300,000 people in India are learning French. Out of these, 30,000 are learning the language in Alliance Francaise centres alone. ,” says Mohamed. He feels the market is ripe, as channels like UTV’s World Movies are in the offing. “Middle class incomes are increasing and it is exploring new avenues of entertainment.” As for the content, Mohamed says as far as he knows, Indians like comedy, action and romance, and French films provide all three. In fact, the film’s producer Sunil Doshi has already acquired rights of film like “Azur et Asmar” and “Roman de Gare”, which are on show at the festival. “I feel there is a sizeable space between the five percent Hollywood films and 95 percent Bollywood films that get released in this country. And this could be filled if we bring European, Latin American and Asian cinema.”Together with NDTV Imagine…More