Good ol' glory: Bollywood films that bagged awards at Cannes

The 67th edition of the Cannes film festival kicked off yesterday with the screening of the Nicole Kidmanstarrer Grace of MonacoUday Chopra happens to be one of the producers of this biopic However hersquos not the only Indian face at the French Riviera this year Along with the usual dose of Bollywood glamour read Aishwarya RaiBachchan Sonam Kapoor and many more this year will see director Kanu Behl keeping his fingers crossed even as his film Titli competes in the Camera drsquoOr category which acknowledges the best debut effortA still from the film Titli is one of the contenders for Camera dOr at the ongoing Cannes Film FestivalInterestingly over the years several films have been screened at Cannes but none have won an award in the competitive categories hitlist takes you down the memory lane to look at films from India that were not only screened at the prestigious film fest but also won laurelsNeecha Nagar 1946Director Chetan AnandThe lowdown When the Cannes Film Festival was held for the first time after the World War II in 1946 this Hindi film bagged the Palm drsquoOr Golden Palm along with 10 other entries from around the worldDo Bigha Zamin 1953Director Bimal Roy The lowdown Heavily inspired by Bicycle Thieves 1948 this Bengali film mdash starring Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy in leading roles mdash won the Golden Palm along with eight other moviesBoot Polish 1954Director Prakash Arora The lowdown A Raj Kapoor production the filmrsquos socialist approach was difficult to ignore but its story won the audiences over To add to this the festival made a special mention of child actress Naaz who rendered a heartwarming performance in the filmPather Panchali 1955Director Satyajit Ray The lowdown This film is counted among Rayrsquos best works At the Cannes film fest it unanimously won the Best Human Document awardPather Panchali won the Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival setting the tone of filmmaker Satyajit Rayrsquos success story in the global arenaGotoma the Buddha 1956 Director Rajbans Khanna The lowdown The filmrsquos title may have not been conventional but its message was clear This feted documentary was nominated for Palm drsquoOr and it won a special mention for the director who interestingly never made another filmKharij 1982Director Mrinal SenThe lowdown This Bengali film was nominated for the Palm drsquoOr which was won by the Japanese film The Ballad of Narayama However Sen didnrsquot return home emptyhanded as he was awarded the Jury PrizeSalaam Bombay 1988Director Mira NairThe lowdown Before it became the second Indian film to be nominated by the Academy this Camera drsquoOr Golden Camera winning film bowled over critics as well as the public at CannesPiravi 1989Director Shaji N KarunThe lowdown Just a year after Salaam Bombay took the honours this Malayalam feature film mdash it deals with rural and urban disparity mdash earned a special mention in the Camera drsquoOr categoryMarana Simhasanam 1999Director Murali Nair The lowdown This Malayalam film threw light on the relationship between elections and idiocy in the country It won the Camera drsquoOr mdash a feat yet to be repeated by an Indian filmThe Lunchbox 2013Director Ritesh BatraThe lowdown Although it didnrsquot win a major award in the competition category at the 66th Cannes Film Festival it bagged the Grand Rail drsquoOr