They Cannes and will -Anuj Saxena

They Cannes and will

Television gains a foothold in Cannes, as producers and actors Anuj Saxena and J D Majethia take off for the MIPTV festival, finds BT

RESHMA S KULKARNI

The television fraternity, in keeping with Bollywood, is all set to gain a foothold at Cannes, Two producerscum-actors — Anuj Saxena and J D Majethia — will be traipsing at Cannes. This the first time that the Indian television is being represented at the event.
So, what exactly will they be doing at Cannes? Anuj explains, "This event is a 10-day festival called MIPTV, which is considered to be even more prestigious than the award festival. It's actually an exhibition wherein production
houses, channels and distributors from all over the world gather with their hardware and software, which is then traded. The approximate trade is to the tune of a few million dollars. I'm attending it because I intend to take my production house to the international level — in terms of producing films or TV programmes with international formats and getting into co-production with some international production house. Today, India is going global in every other field, why should television lag behind? So when I got to know of this arrangement wherein one can interact and deal with such a variety of people, I decided to go for it. I have already fixed up meetings with some production houses from Canada and New York and God willing, if the deals fall into place, we can soon expect something different on Indian television soon; maybe in the form of reality shows or fiction or whatever else. I'm keeping my options open." Anuj seems to have kept his arsenal all ready.
As for J D, he will be going for the fest purely as a student. He says, "I'm going because I'm interested in perusing through various formats that producers from all over the world will be exhibiting over there. As a producer, I'm in
a constant quest to offer something new to my viewers and it is with this thought in mind that I'll be attending the fest. However, I have no immediate plans to buy or sell anything, because the formats for the next two shows that we'll be coming up with, in this year, have already been worked out. I'll be approaching the whole thing with a purely educational approach, to know what the latest developments in the global television industry are. But of course, all said and done, one can never say what happens over there. Who knows, I may also come back with something very novel. I'll be in a better position to say something concrete once I come back."