While some of the stars who have filled the headlines recently, such as Shilpa Shetty, Aishwarya Rai and new husband Abhishek Bachchan, will be attending the festival -- it will be the producers and distributors that will be calling the shots this year.

This year holds a special significance for India, as the country celebrates 60 years of Independence, coinciding with the 60th Cannes film festival.

India will be the Partner country at the opening night of the Cannes film market dinner party. In addition, India will also be the focus country in the world cinema section, where seven films will be showcased with two days devoted exclusively to India. Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munnabhai and Rituporno Ghosh's Dosar are among the films being screened at the festival.

Among the group of 60 entertainment companies participating at the film marketUTV, Kaleidoscope, Studio 18, Eros, Adlabs and I-Dreams will be included.

I-Dreams have six new movies for distribution, UTV is promoting three of its big forthcoming films -- Jodha Akbar, Goal and Metro. Whereas, Kaleidoscope will unveil all its grand projects, all related to its yet to be made magnum opus Mahabharata.

Meanwhile, some major international sales agents and production companies like West Ham Films, Longtale LLC and Serotonin Films have shown interest in Indian projects.