India has expressed unhappiness and dissatisfaction at the absence of any films from the sub-continent in the competition category of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

This year, the only Indian film to have made the grade in any category was Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali", which was selected under the Cannes Classic section. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the film's first release. However, many observers say that that the film was chosen more as a face saving device.

The point was not lost on Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, who raised the issue during his meetings with the organisers of the Cannes festival. Reddy is leading a near-100 strong delegation from India but was clearly shocked at not finding a single Indian film at the festival.

"Though I agree that the quality of the Indian films is not commensurate with the number of films we make, I am totally unable to share the perception that none of our films had the quality necessary to make it to qualify at Cannes," Reddy told here.

The last Indian film to have made it to the competition category was way back in 1994 when Shaji Karun's "Swaham" was shown at the festival.

Since then there has been a drought of Indian films in the most prestigious category at the world's most prestigious film festival, though some Indian films - like "Devdas" - have been shown under different categories and some have won critical acclaim too.

Reddy said he had pointed out the need to the Cannes authorities to review the entire process for selecting films for the festival. From his discussions with the authorities, he gathered that they too were totally clueless about the reasons behind the absence of Indian films at Cannes.

"They did not seem to have a clear answer to my questions," Reddy said. "I left them in no doubt about the fact that the government of India is upset about this."

It was not just with the Cannes organisers that Reddy was dissatisfied. He also expressed his unhappiness about the small size and bad placement of the Indian pavilion at the festival.

Over the past few years, the Indian presence at Cannes seems to have shrunk dramatically and the Indian pavilion too has moved from the chic on-the-beach location to a small stand in an obscure corner of the film market.

In fact, the Indian pavilion seemed most passive and unattractive with just a few odd posters decorating the walls, unlike most other pavilions that had clips of their films playing continuously on slick plasma screens and LCD TVs.

Reddy said he planned to dramatically alter India's presence and image at the festival from the next year onwards.

"A few years ago, the government had been ill-advised not to take space in the International Film Village on the beach. I told the Cannes authorities that from next year onwards, India will indeed take space on the beach and that we will improve our profile here," Reddy maintained.

His efforts at improving the Indian presence, Reddy said, will not be limited to government bodies only and he would like to see the private sector too play its part in the venture.

"I would also like to motivate the private sector to participate in a much bigger way next year. Indian filmmakers tend to get insular due to the huge domestic market and markets in traditional countries.

"But we have to get them to participate in Cannes and get exposed to a much broader and larger market," Reddy said.

Indian films, according to him, lacked the kind of treatment that would make them universally appealing.