Deepika Padukone begins jury duty at Cannes Film Festival

Deepika Padukone started jury duty at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival a day after landing in the city. She was seen at the opening ceremony with fellow jury members.

The actress has been a regular at the festival for years. She represented L'Oreal several times at the iconic fashion event. This is the first time she is on the jury. Deepika is the first Indian since Vidya Balan in 2013 to be chosen for jury duty. The festival runs from May 17 to 28.

After being chosen for the jury, Deepika told the media that she hopes that Indian media has learned that it has the power to actually change that narrative and talk about what a big moment this is for India. She was referring to the blinding negative coverage received by Vidya Balan's fashion choices. She said fashion is fun but also personal. "I hope we realise that there is so much more".

She added that it feels like a personal victory, but also a slightly larger victory for the South Asian community. "We can literally count on our fingertips the number of times anyone from India has been on the jury or has had the opportunity to represent the country at a platform such as this".

Padukone also mentioned the curiosity she has about spending two weeks watching films and interacting with fellow jury members.

The Piku-star will be on the jury with Vincent Lindon (French actor), Rebecca Hall (English actor-filmmaker), Asghar Farhadi (Iranian filmmaker), Noomi Rapace (Swedish actor), Jasmine Trinca (Italian actor-director), Ladj Ly (French filmmaker-actor), Jeff Nichols (American filmmaker), and Joachim Trier (Norwegian director-screenwriter).