The wild East

Along with the prerequisite number of American and European stars present, Bollywood, Egyptian and Turkish stars made a big impact at this year's Cannes Film Festival

There's no doubt about it. Cannes is as much about fashion as it is cinema. And when it comes to the fashion stakes, Bollywood babes Aishwarya Rai and Preity Zinta had the red carpet look nailed.

Ash, who has been attending the Cannes Film Festival every year since the release of Devdas in 2003, says she makes it a point never to miss the event.

The actress, who was once on the Cannes jury, was attending this year as a representative of French cosmetics giant L'Oreal.

Rai made the Cannes red carpet debut in an elegant black Armani gown, accompanied by Andie McDowell and Kerry Washington, at the premiere of The Da Vinci Code.

The following day, the ex-Miss World was seen sashaying down the red carpet again, but this time in a blue Roberto Cavalli dress to promote her new movie Provoked.

Following Ash, it was Preity's turn. The dimpled actress was spotted on the second day of the festival wearing a golden dress on the red carpet.

She was later escorted by Caroline Gruosi Scheufele, the president of jewellery giant Chopard to a private party. Zinta said she was at Cannes to promote her soon-to-be-released film with director Karan Johar, Kabhie Alvida Na Kehna.

Happy to soak up all the attention possible, Preity made it a point to be noticed at the two premieres she attended: The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Paris, Je T'aime.

Once the ladies made their grand exits, it was the turn of the Bollywood boys.

Viviek Oberoi was in Cannes to promote his movie Othello.

The actor turned up in Indian designer Arjun Khanna's Maharaja collection, saying, "I hated the idea of wearing a Western suit to Cannes. And since I wanted to promote the Indian adaptation of Othello, Omkara, it was most appropriate to wear Indian. It couldn't be anything else."

Other Bollywood biggies at Cannes included Ajay Devgan (who. along with Oberoi was there to promote Omkara), Karan Johar, Milind Soman, Gurinder Chada and Vishal Bhardwai.

Devgan said "It was my first time at Cannes and the experience was amazing. Cannes has a great film market."

However, it wasn't only the Bollywood stars that came out in full force.

This year's Cannes Festival also saw quite a few Arab and Turkish movies making their premiere.

Egyptian cinema made waves at the festival this year with a handful of audacious new-look movies exploring the region's social and political problems.

Among the movies presented was Omaret Yacoubian. Lead stars Mohammad Imam and Hind Sabry as well as director Marwan Hame were present to give the movie a boost.

Meanwhile, Turkish stars Ebru Ceylan and Nazan Kesal and director Nuri Bilge Ceylan were on hand in Cannes to promote their movie Iklimler.

With so much input coming in from the East this year, it looks like the Cannes festival has finally become the international event it promised to be.