With “Slumdog Millionaire” having made waves on the global scene, Indian movie themes and filmmakers are beginning to reap the benefits in the international sales and co-productions arena at the ongoing Cannes Film Market.

“Slumdog has opened a door for Indian cinema,” says Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj. “We have to put our foot in and capitalise on the opportunity.”

The happy augury is that several Indian films have been picked up for global distribution by frontline sales agents and the going could only get better from here on if filmmakers from this part of the world, as Amritraj points out, can learn the rules of the game.

The Indian Film Company (TIFC) has made history by selling its “Road, Movie”, written and directed by Dev Benegal, to Fortissimo Films, which is one of the world’s leading sales agents with offices in Amsterdam, London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong.

“‘Road, Movie’ is an important milestone in our company’s endeavour to support India’s growth on the cinematic world stage,” said Sandeep Bhargava, CEO of the advisory board of TIFC. TIFC has also got leading British distribution company HanWay Films on board to handle Gurinder Chadha’s “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife”, starring Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Jimi Mistry and Shabana Azmi.

Endeavour Independent has bought the distribution rights of Venus Records and Tapes’ “Hisss”, a  indi-English film directed by Jennifer Lynch and starring Irrfan Khan and Mallika Sherawat.