Devdas at Cannes

Bharati Dubey

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Devdas has been invited to the Cannes Film Festival. The festival opens May 15 and extends to May 26. Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai and Jackie Shroff, it has been included in the official selection of films unveiled in Paris by the organisers of event on the French Riviera.

It will enjoy a special screening during the festival. Shah Rukh Khan states, "Yes, the film will be screend at the Festival." Devdas will be screened at Cannes even before its release in India. The film is slated to release in India on June 14."

The movie is the third celluloid take on a classic tragedy in which the title character drunkenly pines after his childhood sweetheart while rebuffing the advances of a lovestruck prostitute.

It may be recalled that the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj had inaugurated the India Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Also, the National Film Development Corporation, a part of the India Pavilion, sold some of Satyajit Ray's works for a theatrical release in Spain.