Sonam Kapoor Ahuja is going to attend and perform at King Charles' coronation ceremony. Alia Bhatt has just made her Met Gala debut paying tribute to fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld in a creation by Prabal Gurung. Earlier in the year, Deepika Padukone graced the Oscars stage when she announced the Naatu Naatu performance from SS Rajamouli's RRR. The same night MM Keeravani and Chandrasekhar won the Oscar award for Best Song. Indian artistes from cinema have been making a serious impact around the world. It's not a new phenomenon, the honours date back to costume designer Bhanu Athaiya winning an Oscar for her work on Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. Even before that, Satyajit Ray's cinema had a profound influence on his foreign contemporaries like Elia Kazan and Akira Kurosawa. Even icons like George Lucas, Francis Ford Cappola and Martin Scorsese have admitted that Ray's films have influenced their understanding of cinema. As audiences have recently rediscovered through Vikramaditya Motwane's show Jubilee, back in the 40s and 50s Indian producers used to employ German filmmakers as directors, too. Indian cinema's tryst with the global stage has been going on for decades and yet, it is always a matter of pride for any Indian artiste to represent the country at an international event.
In this week's Big Story we look at this symbiotic and collaborative relationship between Indian artistes and foreign cinema. Why it's important for Indian filmmakers like Shekhar Kapur, Anurag Kashyap, SS Rajamouli, Ritesh Batra and Chaitanya Tamhane to take their cinema to the global stage. Why it's equally important for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Alia Bhatt to represent India at international fashion events and film festivals. Taking India to the global stage means the World takes inspiration from our art and culture. It is an important step in establishing Indian cinema as a global power.
