Actor Hina Khan is currently attending the Cannes Film Festival 2022 where India is the ‘country of honour’. Earlier this week, the opening ceremony for the Indian Pavilion took place which was attended by Deepika Padukone, Tamannaah Bhatia and Urvashi Rautela along with other celebrities. However, Hina Khan wasn’t invited.
According to The Indian Express, Hina Khan spoke to film critic Anupama Chopra about the issue. Calling it “disheartening”, Hina highlighted that there is an “elitest system” at place which still segregates television and film actors, even though they are representing the same country on an international platform.
“We all belong to the same industry, we all belong to the entertainment business, we have all come here to represent India. I am very excited to launch the poster of my film, everyone there knows that I’m coming to launch the poster of my film… I was very excited.”
She went on to add:
“Then comes the news…There is an elitist system, this elitist game, which still exists. There was an opening ceremony that happened at the Indian pavilion. There was everyone, all the talents, my contemporaries, and not just from Bollywood. It’s not that I envy them, I am so proud of them. But at the same time, it is a bit disheartening, why was I not there? Why was I not there? I could have been there, probably in the audience, at least, cheering for them when they were doing the Ghoomar. I loved the video, I felt so proud of my country.”
Here’s a video capturing snippets from her interview:
Hina Khan on not being invited to the Indian Pavilion opening ceremony from BollyBlindsNGossip
Videos from the opening ceremony showed how the Indian celebrities danced to ‘Ghoomar’ – a song from the film ‘Padmaavat’ starring Deepika Padukone.
India took over #Cannes with @deepikapadukone, @tamannaahspeaks, @hegdepooja & @UrvashiRautela showing off their moves to #Ghoomar 💃#DeepikaPadukone #Tamannaah #TamannaahBhatia #PoojaHegde #UrvashiRautela #Bollywood #Tollywood #Cannes2022 #CannesFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/JfLeXfG16X
— Hyderabad Times (@HydTimes) May 19, 2022
While Hina Khan has managed to come under the spotlight after her first Cannes appearance a couple of years ago, it is sad how she didn’t receive an invitation. Don’t you think?