Alfonso Cuaron will be executive producer of the Indian entry at Venice, The Disciple

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron is executive producing the Chaitanya Tamhane-directorial The Disciple, which features in the competition section of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

Writer-director Chaitanya Tamhane's Marathi film, The Disciple, is the first Indian film in almost 20 years to feature in the main competition at any of the three major European films festivals — Berlin, Cannes and Venice.

The Disciple will debut in the official competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. This is the first Indian film to make the cut since Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding in 2001, which had won Golden Lion, the highest prize at the festival.

Chaitanya's debut feature, the 2014 film Court, had also won recognition at Venice. The courtroom drama won the Luigi De Laurentiis Award and the Venice Horizons Award at the 2014 edition of the festival, besides winning the National Award for Best Film back home.

Cuaron had mentored Chaitanya Tamhane after Court. "I met Chaitanya through a mentorship program where I had the opportunity to watch his very superb debut film, Court. I was immediately impressed by his sense of cinema and fearless confidence to tell stories. He was part of most of Roma's process and I jumped to the opportunity to be part of the process of his second film The Disciple. I believe Chaitanya is one of the most important new voices of contemporary cinema," Cuaron said.

Chaitanya feels it is "surreal and an incredible honour" for him to have such an acclaimed filmmaker supporting his film.