Actress Richa Chadha has taken a dig at celebrities who walked this year’s Cannes red carpet for events sponsored by fashion and cosmetic brands, reminding fans that it was a film festival organised to honour movies from around the world and not an occasion to parade their outfits.

Lauded for her portrayal of Lajjo in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s maiden web series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Richa hinted in a note on Instagram that some stars cough up money to be able to appear in the most prestigious film festival of France.

“It is a film festival. Please don’t pay anyone money to go there and get clicked on a red carpet. Look at all the real achievers at the festival, strive to be one of them, go there with a film someday,” she wrote on Monday, emphasising the importance of genuine participation.

The actress, who is married to Ali Fazal, also advised viewers to not create hype around representatives of fashion and cosmetics brands, which only sponsor some events at the festival. “Fashion and cosmetics just sponsor some events there, that’s all. They’re cute. And necessary for business perhaps. It’s a film festival, and one of the best in the world.”

While coming down hard on celebrities attending film festivals for reasons other than representing a movie, Richa mentioned all the Indian winners at Cannes over the years and posted a carousel of pictures featuring them. “Even if a million storms rise, the flowers that are meant to bloom will bloom,” she quoted poet Sahir Ludhianvi to pay tribute to them.

Richa congratulated filmmaker Payal Kapadia and her team for winning the Grand Prix award for All We Imagine As Light at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. She also gave a shout-out to actress Anusuya Sengupta, who won the Best Actress Award for her performance in Constantin Bojanov’s The Shameless under the Un Certain Regard category.

Apart from Payal and Anasuya, Richa shared a picture of filmmaker Chidananda S Naik, who received the La Cinef award for his short film Sunflowers Were the First to Know. She also shared a poster of SANTOSH, an Indian feature film directed by Sandhya Suri and starring Shahana Goswami, for entering Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year.

The actress also mentioned cinematographer Santosh Sivan in her long note as he became the first Asian to receive the Pierre Angenieux ExcelLens in Cinematography award at the 77th edition of the annual film festival. Actress Preity Zinta presented the award to him in a ceremony on May 24.

Reminiscing about her own experience at the Cannes Film Festival, Richa recalled her first appearance there with the Gangs of Wasseypur team for the Director’s Fortnight event. She also shared a picture of her red carpet appearance at the festival for Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan, which featured in Un Certain Regard in 2015.

Additionally, the actress went on to pay tribute to Shuchi Talati’s Girls Will Be Girls, which was screened in the Juniors section at Cannes 2024. The film marks her and Ali Fazal’s first production venture under their home banner Pushing Buttons Studios.