Congratulations pour in for R Madhavan as Rocketry chosen to screen at Cannes

New Delhi: Actor R Madhavan is in a daze of happiness ever since his directorial venture “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect” has been chosen to screen at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.

Congratulations have been flooding Madhavan's social media account, and a beaming Madhavan has been effusive in his thanks to everyone.

The film is a biopic on Nambi Narayanan, a former scientist and aerospace engineer in ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) who was falsely accused of espionage in 1996.

The film stars R. Madhavan as Nambi Narayanan, Simran as Meena Narayanan, Rajit Kapur as Vikram Sarabhai (Hindi and English versions), Ravi Raghavendra as Vikram Sarabhai (Tamil version), Misha Ghoshal as Geeta Narayanan, Shyam Renganathan as Shankar Narayanan, Muralidaran as Arunan, Karthik Kumar as P. M. Nayar, Gulshan Grover as A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Dinesh Prabhakar as L. D. Gopal, Mohan Raman as Udupi Ramachandra Rao and SRK will make a cameo in the Hindi version.

The film will have its world premiere on May 19 and will be a trilingual release featuring releases in Hindi, Tamil and English.

Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi tweeted “Can't think of a better Indian film to premiere at #Cannes. Truly, a story that will make every Indian proud! Congratulations @ActorMadhavan & team #Rocketry!” The actor tweeted in response “Thank you so very much bro. Time to put head down and pray for the best.”

Speaking on the news, R. Madhavan said “I'm in a daze! I just started by wanting to tell the story of Nambi Narayanan and I'm unable to believe all that's happening. With God's grace, we've waited long and I'm grateful and thrilled to watch all good things happening for the film. As a debut director, my nervousness is making it difficult for me to breathe & all I hope is to make India proud!”

Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, tweeted “India chosen as first Country of Honour ever at #CannesFilmMarket. Another highlight of India's participation at this edition of #Cannes Film Festival is the World Premiere of the Movie “Rocketry” produced by @ActorMadhavan”.

India is set to be the official Country of Honour at the 75th Cannes Film Market, coinciding with both India's celebration of its 75th Independence Day and the 75th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival.

For India, this would mean that the opening night will feature a celebration of both Indian cinema and culture marked by performances of Indian bands and folk music on the great night. Even the cuisine featured at the ceremony will be Indian. (UNI)