Manoj Tiwari

Patna, May 22: Bhojpuri singer and actor Manoj Tiwari would have been posing for a group photo in France had the weekend not fallen on May 19 and 20.

Manoj’s dream of making it to the Cannes Film Festival shattered when the French immigration office failed to issue him a visa in time.

Manoj was one of the team members invited by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap to attend the screening of Gangs of Wasseypur at the film festival on Tuesday (9pm IST). Kashyap’s film had been selected in the Directors’ Fortnight section.

Manoj has sung a song, Jiya ho Bihar ke lala, jiya ho hazaar saala…, in the to-be-released film. This is the first time the Bhojpuri singer has lent his voice to a Bollywood song.

Manoj was very excited to attend the film festival. “It is really disappointing for me that I could not attend the event today due to visa problems,” he said.

Manoj was supposed to board the flight to France at 1.30am on Tuesday but could not get the visa in time.

Speaking to The Telegraph from Varanasi, Manoj said: “On May 18, I was invited to attend the Cannes Film Festival as a member of the team of Gangs of Wasseypur. I approached the visa office the same day, but since May 19 and 20 were weekends, my application was not forwarded.”

He further said: “The visa office informed me that at least three working days are needed to complete the paperwork. I delayed the process by rushing to Delhi for the visa. I was under the impression that visa for France is issued from the national capital. Had I applied in Mumbai, the result might have been different.”