Shekhar Kapur wants Brit to live in Mumbai slum

Vikramaditya rules
Walking past the Palais des Festival and the Debussy Theatre in Cannes, you see on giant billboards the names of lucky directors whose films have been chosen for screening.

Vikramaditya Motwale features with Mike Leigh and Abbas Kiarostami. Where more illustrious Indian directors have failed, Motwale has sneaked in with his debut film Udaan, which will be screened on Wednesday.

It is the first Indian film in seven years to feature in Un Certain Regard. Motwale says he started his film career helping his producer mother on her talk show Teen Talk, before he assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas.

Farr out
English writer David Farr has been recruited by Shekhar Kapur to add the final polish to his script for Paani, the film about imminent water wars. "I have invited him to Bombay," Kapur, a member of the Cannes jury, says in-between catching films.

Farr won't be putting up at the Taj, though. Kapur wants Farr to have a different five-star experience.

Farr may be learning this for the first time but "he will be living in a Bombay slum without water or toilets".

Where's Frieda?
I am told Freida Pinto won't be in Cannes when her Woody Allen movie, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is shown out of competition. However, she has not been forgotten. In the inside page of the official Cannes brochure, Freida occupies a full page L'Oreal ad.