This morning Rajeev had to leave for India. Well, I know he did say that he had send his last blog, but as they day the show must go on. I will be taking charge from here on.

So the helm is in my hands. I had to somehow get absolutely get adjusted to the fact that I had to carry all equipment on my own. This seems perfectly fine till the first hour then the pain sets inJ.

Being a Londoner that I am how could I go anywhere without rain following me. Cannes had its first taste of rain since the festival began. I had to reach for a press conference this morning but I ended up walking towards the wrong hotel.

Anyways, I did reach there finally, five minutes late !! the Reliance BIG entertainment press conference began half an hour late.. the company announced that they would be investing a billion dollars in various film projects over the next two years.

This would include a slate of 69 films spread over seven languages. Vinod Chopra joined in the press conference and tried to start of by cracking a joke on George Bush's, statement which he made on India being the reason for soaring food prices. He said that the prices of tickets would soon rise and George would again blame this on the Indians. I suppose he was hoping for a laughing ovation but the entire press conference was silent ... quite an uncomfortable moment - these moments seem to last forever!!

He then went on to say that the Reliance announcement was a bugle call for Indian film industry to take on the Hollywood giants. He was going very gung-ho about it and even said that they would take over Hollywood. Now I know that its good to be optimistic but this was a bit too bold J. The Chairman of the Reliance BIG entertainment had to interject and say, well, hey lets not blow this a bit too far "we believe that there is space for all of us and we can co-exist harmoniously."

As usual, after the press conference the one on one interviews were to take place and as usual there was utter chaos. The television crews were trying to get their interviews done as quick as possible and leave the event was being handled by a British PR and I suppose this was the first time that they were handling the Indian press.

They looked visibly terrified!! I tried to speak to one of them for an interview slot with Vinod Chopra and she just looked and me and pointed to the crowd, it was a free for all roller coaster, each crew trying to jostle for at the right frame and the right poster for their interview. The most visual representation of the cut- throat competition between media companies in India can be observed in these press conferences. How could I be any different, without Rajeev here, I figured I had to be ruthless and fast J. I grabbed two chairs, got by posters for the background, set my frame and set out for the hunt. After about one hour of smiling, cajoling, showing your best aggressive behaviour, I got my interviews and was out of there.

It was still raining outside and there were Moroccans selling umbrellas every ten feet. I asked for the cheapest one, this huge black guy showed me one, which was hardly large enough to cover my head let alone me and my bags and tripod. He told me this was for 20 euros!! I politely smiled pulled out my Screen magazine from the festival, put it over my head and told him "Free". He just smiled and went over to another hapless half drenched festival goer!!

Rajeev had reached Munich where he had to take a connecting flight to India. He had left a message that the PR for Chopard {they are one of the official sponsers of the festival} was requesting for us to interview their company President and in return she would give us a pass for the Woody Allen photoshoot on Saturday.

WOOD ALLEN!!!Hell I could interview a wooden block to meet him. I rushed to the Carlton Hotel where the Chopard team was based. Inside the hotel, Ann the PR woman escorted me to a quiet room overlooking the sea. This was a world away from the commotion and rain outside.

In a corner was a box, which had two white gloves on top of it. The President Mrs Gruosi Scheufele was a very charming lady, she spoke of Preity Zinta and her cricket team and wanted to understand the game.

I told her it was a bit like American baseball spread over five days, a day or in Preity's case three hours. As we began the interview, she picked up this box and opened it. The PALM d'OR had been lying in this box all this while.. I had dreams of holding this one day, well... the dream had come true (sort of)

After the interview I held the Palm d'OR and promised her I would be back someday to pick her up !!!!

I now have a date with Woody to look out for tomorrow evening ( do I sound gay hereJ). For the moment its rain in Cannes and some Chinese food. My glamorous day at Cannes comes to and end eating some fried rice and chicken with an old Chinese man as company who somehow had a startling resemblance to Woody Allen !!!!!!!