The world premiere of the Hindi movie Agra by Kanu Behl happened on Wednesday, twenty fourth May throughout Directors’ Fortnight on the 76th Cannes Film Festival. The film, the one Indian image chosen for Directors’ Fortnight this yr, acquired a 5-minute standing ovation.
Co-writer and director Kanu, actors Priyanka Bose and Mohit Agarwal, and producers Siddharth Anand Kumar, Sahil Sharma, and William Jehannin all attended the premiere.
Director Kanu Behl believes the film will “open the way for difficult conversations”
Speaking in regards to the appreciation and recognition he acquired, Director Kanu mentioned, “It was overwhelming to see a story that took me on a very personal journey received with such love and warmth on the global stage. ‘Agra’ reflects a very specific milieu, but the story it tells about the politics of sexual repression and the tangled skeins of desire, is universal, and that’s what the audiences responded to.”
He added, “I feel truly rewarded that the film’s journey has begun on such an uplifting note. To see it being celebrated in the prestigious Director’s Fortnight at Cannes gives me hope that it will open the way for difficult conversations about things we don’t address in our homes.”
What is Kanu Bhel’s “Agra” about?
“Agra’s” synopsis reads, “Guru (25), a sexually repressed young boy, lives in a small house in Agra. He sleeps in the same room as his mother, and on the upper floor his father lives with a mistress. In an already tiny house, the only available space is the terrace on the upper floor. Guru insists that he loves Mala, an imaginary girl, and will marry her and live with her in a room on the terrace just like his father does with his mistress.”
The film was produced on the PJLF Three Rivers residence challenge in Italy, with funding offered by the esteemed “Cinema du Monde” movie fund.
Saregama India Ltd, UFO Production, and O28 Films collectively produced the Indo-French film. “Agra” stars Rahul Roy, Priyanka Bose, Mohit Agarwal, Ruhani Sharma, Vibha Chibber, Sonal Jha, and Aanchal Goswami in pivotal roles.
About Kanu Behl
After dabbling in performing, radio, and copywriting, Kanu Behl pursued a significant in movie route on the Satyajit Ray Film and TV Institute in Kolkata. His debut documentary, “An Actor Prepares,” debuted in France’s Cinema du Reel competitors in 2006. The documentary brief “Three Blind Men” (2007), which ZDF and ARTE commissioned on the Berlin Film Festival, was the subsequent challenge he directed and produced. Following this had been the documentary movies ‘Found Him Yet?’ and ‘Over Thresholds’ (2008), each of which had been ordered by NHK, Japan. Kanu, a graduate of the Berlinale Talent Campus and a two-time Berlin Today Award nominee, started writing fiction in 2010.
With Dibakar Banerjee, he co-wrote the extremely acclaimed “LSD” (Love, Sex, and Betrayal), which turned his breakthrough work. The debut movie “Titli” premiered in 2014 at Un Certain Regard, Cannes, and went on to win necessary 8 worldwide accolades, together with the NETPAC and the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics’ Best First Foreign Film (2015). The Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival hosted the world debut of his second brief, “Binnu Ka Sapna,” which went on to win the famend Student Jury Award.
