Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bollywood documentary at Cannes

Bollywood-The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Jeffrey Zimbalist, has been selected by the Cannes Film Festival. A later addition to the festival's earlier selection, it saves India's ijjat, being a documentary by an Indian director in the Official Selection, as Vikramaditya Motwane's Udaan was last year--though it is in the 'Out of Competition' section.

Although virtually every filmmaker dreams of being selected at Cannes, Mehra likes to play it ubercool.

"We put our best foot forward, it got selected and that's it," he says, as if issuing instructions for making Maggi noodles.

By contrast, the opinion of the Cannes Film Festival itself on Bollywood, is a breathless, yet Chanakya-like exercise in cautious praise: "We love it. We hate it. We see it as regressive. We see it as modern. We need to breathe it to feel alive. Some say it is the only culture that holds India together… That's Bollywood!" The film's team includes Shekhar Kapur who, as a member of the Cannes International Jury in 2010, suggested making "a film that brings together the most beautiful moments in the history of Indian musical films."  UTV's Trishya and Ronnie Screwvala backed him as producers.

Was co-director Jeffrey Zimbalist brought in to keep the Western sensibility in mind when making the film? Mehra, still in Maggi mode, says, "It's not about the Western or Indian viewpoint. We were just two people working on the film."

The film plays alongside Jodie Foster's The Beaver and Rob Marshall's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in the Out of Competition section. Mehra's Delhi 6 had played at the Venice Film Festival in 2009.