So happy I don’t have words for it: Chhaya Kadam on Cannes win for ‘All We Imagine As Light’

Chhaya Kadam, known for her roles in ‘Laapataa Ladies’ and ‘Madgaon Express’, speaks about working on the Cannes Grand Prix winner, directed by Payal Kapadia

One of the most photographed moments from the Cannes red carpet this year was the jig by the All We Imagine As Light team at the premiere. It was a sign the film, the first in 30 years by an Indian director to be selected for competition at the gala, would win big, says actor Chhaya Kadam.

And it did. Payal Kapadia’s meditative film about two Kerala nurses in Mumbai went on to bag the Grand Prix, the second highest honour at Cannes after the top prize Palme d'Or (won by Sean Baker's Anora).

“I am so happy I don’t have the words for it,” Kadam told PTI over the phone from Cannes. The red carpet moment is etched in her memory, and in Indian cinema history. Kadam, who plays one of the three leads of the movie alongside Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha, doesn't remember who started dancing first.

"I'm not sure at this point, but it was probably me," she said. "Someone from Mumbai called and joked, 'You were dancing as if you were in your own courtyard'. I was like, 'Kyun nahin?' Just to be part of the main competition after 30 years is a huge achievement, not to count the award that we won. Why follow protocol? Hum apni khushi aise hi dikhaate hain, kood kood kar. (That's how we show our joy, by breaking into a dance)," Kadam said.

"When we stood still for photographs, even the photographers started requesting us to keep dancing. There was just so much happiness around," she said, adding that she heard the Marathi song Gulabi Saree playing when she stepped down from her car for the premiere.

The film, an India-French co-production, was pegged a frontrunner after it received glowing reviews in international press post its gala screening.

The Malayalam-Hindi feature revolves around Prabha, a Mumbai nurse whose life is thrown in disarray when she receives a rice cooker from her estranged husband. Anu, her roommate and colleague, is struggling to find a private spot in the bustling city to be with her boyfriend. Prabha's best friend Parvati (Kadam), a widow, is being forced out of her home by property developers.