On Friday, former French president Francois Hollande’s comments have set the cat lose among the pigeons after he claimed that it was the Indian government who had suggested that Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as the offset partner for Dassault.
The report in 'Mediapart', a French language publication, quoted Hollande as saying, "It was the Indian government that proposed this service group, and Dassault who negotiated with Ambani. We had no choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us."
Earlier, a report in Indian Express had stated that two days before Hollande came to India where he signed an MoU to deliver 36 Rafale aircrafts, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment had entered a deal to produce a film with Hollande’s partner Julie Gayet.
His comment about Gayet came while responding to aforementioned Indian Express report and denying this the choice of partner had anything to do with his paramour’s film. He said: “That’s why, on the other hand, this group (Reliance) did not have to give me any thanks for anything. I couldn’t even imagine that there was any connection to a film by Julie Gayet.”
Hollande – a ladies’ man
But before we get to Gayet, a little background. Hollande’s peccadilloes are legendary in France, where he has managed to shock a relatively liberal society – compared to US and UK – with his misadventures.
To borrow a phrase from John Oliver’s The Last Week Tonight mocking the former French president, Hollande is ‘a committed socialist who believes that France should have a public investment bank, that the retirement age should be 60 and also that his body should be shared with as many French women as possible’.
Hollande dated Segolene Royal, a prominent French Socialist and presidential nominee who lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 presidential elections and they have four children and were together for three decades. Hollande separated with her a month after her failed presidential bid.
Later he would date journalist and political commentator Valerie Trierweiler in 2007, and it was rumoured it began even while Valerie Trierweiler was married to her former husband. The couple only made it public in January 2010.
She was often derogatorily referred to as the First Concubine, First Girlfriend or First Mistress by the French press and become at least unofficially the First Lady of France. However, it then emerged that Hollande was actually having an affair
Hollande and Trierweiler separated soon after the revelation of a ménage à trois which involved among other things, a low-budget Dhoom feel, thanks to a getaway involving a scooter.
The affair with Gayet reportedly began in 2012 but only became public in 2014. A photographer managed to track down Hollande’s love nest with Julie Gayet which included an elaborate security arrangement including Hollande traveling part of the trip riding pillion on a scooter, which the photographer managed to snap.
It’s believed, Hollande reportedly made excuses to avoid a holiday with Trierweiler, so he could snatch weekends with Gayet. The two started dating publicly after Hollande separated with Trierweiler when news emerged about his affair.
The Filmy Connection
News reports state that in Jan 2016 Reliance Entertainment would co-produce an Indo-French film ‘to be shot in the Himalayas which has been co-produced by Julie Gayet’s Rouge International and Elisa Soussan’s myFamily’.
The Mediapart report states that that Gayet arrived in New Delhi on three-day visit and the Indian funding was around 1.6 million Euros (out of the total 10 million Euros). Gayet told Mediapart that the investment was made through myFamily’s initiative.
All this emerged yet again when Hollade made his explosive comments on Friday claiming that it was the Indian government who chose the interlocutor and that that particular choice had nothing to with his partner’s film. And that’s how an obscure Indo-French film became the main show of an inter-governmental deal involving France and India.
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