Eminent Australian cinematographer Tom Cowan says India and Canada are some of the countries where watching films is not a mere pastime, but it is a passion. The 75-year-old filmmaker recalled the time when he had come to India to shoot for 1970 Kannada film, "Samskara". He said he was thrilled to see people waiting eagerly to watch the next movie, especially because film industry was largely non-existent in his home country.'

"India was a much more developed industry when it comes to films in that time. Such intensive production. It was interesting for me to be in a country where people were dying to see the next film. That wasn't the case with Australia. We weren't making anything. "I was enthralled with Canada, where people were just waiting for another film. They might have made good films at the time. They were pretty terrible but they were entertaining the people," Cowan said at a Q&A session today at the ongoing Bengaluru International Film Festival.