Mumbai, May 17 -- Day 2 in Cannes started on an ominous note - it was wet and cold. I trudged to the JW Mariott where the Directors' Fortnight was going to kick off. A parallel section to the festival, it was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild. The Quinzaine, as it is popularly known, played a key role in shaping careers of iconic directors such as Pablo Larrain, Atom Egoyan and our Anurag Kashyap, whose Gangs of Wasseypur had its world premiere here in 2012. This year the sidebar has a new festival director, Paolo Moretti. The opening film was Deerskin, by Quentin Dupieux. It's an intriguing and macabre character study of a man unusually obsessed with his deerskin jacket. Jean Dujardin (remember his Oscar-winning performance in The Artist, 2011?) is scary and hilarious as the unhinged protagonist. In the Q&A after the film, he said he played the character as completely normal, which is why he is more unnerving. Thankfully, when we emerged from the screening, Cannes was back to its picture-postcard scenery. I spent some time chatting with filmmaker Rima Das, whose story is nothing short of inspiring. She came to Mumbai to be an actor. When that didn't work out she taught herself how to make movies. Her second film, Village Rockstars (2018) put her on the global map. She directed, produced, wrote, edited and also handled its art direction and costume design. It won 44 awards at film festivals, four National Awards and was selected as India's official entry to the 2019 Oscars. Her third film, Bulbul Can Sing, has already been to the Toronto and Berlin film festivals. It's Rima's fourth year in Cannes so I asked her to give me a lowdown on how indie artists negotiate a festival like Cannes. Her advice to newbies is they should spend on getting accommodation closer to the venue. Rima participated in the inauguration of the India Pavilion by Amit Khare, secretary, ministry of information and broadcasting. The Pavilion becomes a home away from home for the many Indians at Cannes. And the day ended with another film, Monia Chokri's The Woman of My Brother, which opened the Un Certain Regard section. Next day, Priyanka Chopra Jonas arrives. Stay tuned....