Freida Pinto to miss the Cannes this year

Freida Pinto who has been a regular on the Cannes red carpet will not be at the prestigious film fest which kicks off on May 13 this year. She has committed to Andy Serkis' The Jungle Book which will be filmed in South Africa.
READ: Freida Pinto: Lesser known facts
The live action fantasy thriller adapted from the Rudyard Kipling classic, features several Hollywood A-listers including Benedict Cumber batch as bad cat Sher Khan, Christian Bale as the black leopard Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as the reptelian Kaa, Rohan Chand as Mowgli, the boy raised by animals and Andy Serkis himself as Baloo.
Written by Callie Kloves, the prequel is scheduled to open in the theatres in October 2017. Freida is keeping her character a secret for now. But having worked with Andy before, she wanted to be a part of his directorial and experiment with an entirely new form. Well, Cannes' loss is the jungle's gain! Irrfan Khan, another visible Indian face in Hollywood whose film, The Lunchbox, wowed the audience at the 66th Cannes Film Festival two years ago and came home with the Critics' Week Viewers Choice Award, will be in another part of Europe this year.The actor who was to join his Jazbaa team, including co-star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, another familiar face at Cannes, will be in the company of Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones.
Listen to the songs of Slumdog Millionaire on Gaana.com
According to a source close to the actor, the shooting of Ron Howard's Inferno has been pushed forward leading to a change in plans. This is the third film in the franchise that launched with The Da Vinci Code in 2006 and continued with Angels & Demons three years later. In this adaptation of the Dan Brown novel, Irrfan plays Provost, head of a shadowy cult group.
MEANWHILE... - Imran's Pak film opens at fest Imran Abbas Naqvi last seen in Vikram Bhatt's Creature, will be going to Cannes for the premiere of his film Abdullah: The Final Witness. The Pakistani drama written, produced and directed by Hashim Nadeem focuses on the Kharotabad incident in which five innocent Russian citi zens were killed, alleg edly by a suicide bombers of Frontier Constabulary (FC), at the Kharotabad check post. The incident was filmed by a journalist and some of the videos were aired. Imran who plays Abdullah says, “The script moved me and the shoot strengthened my belief that terrorism is an evil that needs to be exterminated.“
He's planning to catch many films there and meet some Bollywood friends: “This is my first visit to Cannes and going with a film I'm a part of is a dream come true.“
For latest Bollywood updates follow us on Twitter >>>@TOIEntertain
For the latest in Bollywood news, like us on Facebook >>>TOIEntertain
WATCH: ​Irrfan Khan to romance Taapsee Pannu in next film TOI