Currently on a three-day visit to India, French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron spent the afternoon of February 17 with artistes of the Hindi film industry. The luncheon was attended by actors Manoj Bajpayee, Anil Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Richa Chadha, filmmakers Zoya Akhtar, and Neeraj Ghaywan, among others. Bajpayee, who was invited by the Consulate General of France in Mumbai to be part of the interaction, has walked away touched by the French President’s keen interest in the arts.    

Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Masaan’ (2015) and Richa Chadha’s ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ (2024) are among the notable Indo-French co-productions