Kolkata: Celebrated Polish filmmaker Krystof Zanussi today (Nov 12) said the Indian film industry must stop depending on US and British marketing companies in taking its "ambitious" films to a bigger audience abroad and set up its own direct distribution network for the purpose.

"Most Indian films go abroad through US and British distribution companies. Indian film is so powerful that you should think about selling the ambitious films directly to the US," Zanussi said at a 'Face-to- Face' programme at the ninth Kolkata Film Festival.

Pointing out that countries like France and Italy spent a large amount of public money in promoting their films abroad, he said, "A huge country like India must have its own distribution company for to directly market Indian films in other countries."

In response to a question that he was keeping his mind "open" about filming on an Indian theme, Zanussi, attending the festival with his feature film 'Supplement', said European Cinema was still vulnerable from Hollywood's onslaughts.

"Hollywood is strong and suffocating. In my country for example, they set up cinema houses where they insist on showing U S made films only. This is disturbing and alarming and not terribly democratic," he said, adding that many Polish Parliamentarians were "forging American interests".

Despite such onslaughts, however, a "big wave" of new Polish cinema is coming into existence and some of those films were appealing to the youth of that country. Occasionally, some good Russian and Czech films also enriched European Cinema, Zanussi added.

PTI