The Indian Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj announced this week that the government is in discussions with The British Film Institute with a view to setting up a Museum of Moving Images in New Delhi. Discussions advanced during a meeting at last week's Cannes Film Festival.

The minister said that there were several co-production offers from companies based in UK, US, France and Germany.

Returned from a fact finding mission to Europe, which also took in visits to the BBC and BSkyB, she said that she wants to aggressively promote Indian movies at international film festivals. "We want to present a colourful package next year, which would include Indian food, cultural programmes and movies at Cannes," Swaraj told Screen International.

Commenting on her visit to Cannes, Ms. Swaraj said deals worth $65,000 had already been signed by National Film Development Corporation, which included a package of Satyajit Ray trilogy for $45,000.

Two Indian films were among the hottest titles at Cannes: Murali Nair's Un Certain Regard fable A Dog's Day (sold by Celluloid Dreams) and Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding, which Orfeo Films sold to MGM/UA for the US, Prokino for Germany, Monopol Pathe for Switzerland, SF for Scandinavia, Shani Films for Israel and Telexcel for Argentina.