India at Cannes: The Titus Upputuru Company's entry

The agency has shared one entry for this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicks off on 17 June 2024. Manifest's coverage for the festival continues with its 'India at Cannes' series. This series will showcase all of India's entries to this year's festival, speakers giving a sneak peek of their talks, and those attending the festival sharing expectations.

In this piece, we showcase The Titus Upputuru Company's entry for this year's festival. The agency has shared one entry.

Catch Foods: Long distance love

Category entered in: Film Craft

Renowned film director Frank Capra had once said, - ‘I made some mistakes in drama. I thought the drama was when the actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.’

"If you read the comments on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, you will know that people genuinely wept after seeing Catch Food’s 'long distance love'. The heartening response to the film was overwhelming to say the least. Honestly, we were not expecting this kind of reaction. The film had characters that were three-dimensional, based on the character’s physiology, psychology, and sociology. Great amount of research went into creating the worlds of the Brothel and the Orphanage. The Original Sound Track we created was reminiscent of old Bollywood Songs played in brothels. I especially enjoyed writing the lyrics of the song – khushboo awara ban chali”," said Titus Upputuru, the filmmaker.

The film has been winning a lot of awards and accolades within India. It has also earned the prestigious 'official selection' at DadaSaheb Phalke Awards and nomination at FilmFare awards.

The film

The film shows a mysterious woman cooks fresh food, and secretly delivers it at an orphanage. A little girl watches the lunch box arrive and enjoys the food by sharing it with her friends. When the friends enquire about the sender of such tasty food, the little girl gives them a blank stare.

On Mother’s Day, all the children at the orphanage get busy collecting free chocolates. Back home, in the evening, the woman is surprised to note that the lunch box that she got back from the orphanage, contained chocolates and a letter which read – ‘If I had a mother, she would be exactly like you’.

Upon reading it, the woman sobs uncontrollably. She then adjusts her make-up, steps out of her home and stands at the door to attract customers. We realise the woman was a prostitute and the little girl was her own child. The film ends with the line – Only a mother knows the sacrifices she makes.