Abhishek accompanies Ash to Cannes

Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan, launched the India Pavillion on the Cannes beach front amidst great fanfare even as festival's Deputy General-Delegate Christian Jeune hoped that India would soon end its dry run at the French festival.

Abhi who was not accompanied by wifey Aishawairya drew a crowd of photographers, pen pushers and autograph-seekers, who elbowed one another to get closer to the star, who was clearly the man of the moment.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and veteran actress Sharmila Tagore who is on the festival jury, failed to make an appearance much to the dismay of the assembled crowd but the event was attended by Subhash Ghai, Deepti Naval, Manisha Koirala, producer Bobby Bedi and Christian Jeune, Deputy General-Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival amongst others.

In a brief speech, Jeune hoped that India's dry run at the Festival, now on since the 2002 Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Devdas", would soon end.

Deepti Naval is in Cannes to screen her debut feature, "Two Paise for Sunshine, Four Annas for Rain", in the market tomorrow along with Manisha Koirala, who plays the lead in the film.