French President Emmanuel Macron on his three-day India tour ahead of inaugurating the India-France Year of Innovation 2026, met several Bollywood biggies on Tuesday, including actors Richa Chadha, Shabana Azmi, Anil Kapoor, and Manoj Bajpayee for a conversation on cinema and cultural collaborations. For Richa, it was “as thrilling as it gets”.

The 39-year-old tells us that the exchange focused on paving the way for many more successful Indo-French productions, citing her film Masaan (2015) as an example. “I hope these synergies between the two democracies continue. Strengthening these collaborations can open doors for richer storytelling and a wider global reach for independent cinema,” she shares.

She also included Girls Will Be Girls (2024) and All We Imagine As Light (2024) as examples of what sustained partnerships can achieve: “France and India have a very good relationship in terms of producing films together. The discussion was about how to strengthen those ties.”

Gushing about “the youngest President” Richa appreciated how Macron was more focused on solving issues than just listening to problems. “He wasn’t passively listening. He was actively thinking of solutions to the problems being raised,” she says.

Speaking about the challenges faced by Kanu Behl’s Indo-French co-production Agra, she noted that despite premiering at Cannes, it secured only a limited release in India. “Globally, traditional theatre-going has dropped, but cinema attendance has risen in interesting ways. There needs to be an adaptive distribution model.”