The screening of Satyajit Ray's classic "Pather Panchali" Thursday as part of a Classics Series will again put the spotlight on Indian cinema at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

For the third consecutive year, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has taken a high-level team to the French Riviera resort to showcase brand India at the glamorous festival.

"The presence of actress Nandita Das, who will be on the Cannes jury this year, is a big boost and great value add to the India brand," CII said in a statement Wednesday.

Das will also inaugurate the CII India pavilion at the film festival market.

Leading industry representatives is Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy.

He will be accompanied by filmmaker Subhash Ghai, the chairman of the CII national entertainment committee, Bobby Bedi, co-chairman of the committee, Amit Khanna, president of Film and Television Producers Guild, Manmohan Shetty, managing director of Adlabs Films, and Sunit Tandon of the National Film Development Corporation.

The highlight of this year's extravaganza will be Cannes Classics, introduced as an integral part of the festival three years ago.

This year, "Pather Panchali" has been selected to honour it as one of the world's greatest films on the 50th anniversary of its release in 1955.

"Pather Panchali" received one of the most prestigious awards of the event in 1956 -- The Best Human Document.

CII feels "Cannes is an excellent platform for the Indian film industry to interact and network with the global showbiz community and understand international production distribution and exhibition market scenarios better."

Over 60 Indian films will be screened at the Cannes film market, including the English version of Subhash Ghai's "Kisna", Sunstone Entertainment's "Chicken Tikka Masala", Eros International's "Matrubhoomi--A Nation Without Women", and Ketan Mehta's "The Rising".

Coinciding with the fest, CII will hold an India Evening, a glitzy show May 19 that is already a talking point at Cannes.

Every year, the Cannes festival brings together over 7,000 participants from 70 countries, including 16,000 buyers and features 14,000 screenings at 30 venues.