India, May 23 -- The ongoing 79th Cannes Film Festival, in France, has once again flooded social media with celebrity appearances, couture fashion and influencer content. But behind the glamour, creators and insiders are now exposing the growing culture of unofficial "Cannes access" promises, paid photo opportunities and misleading red-carpet claims. Officially, the festival remains a tightly controlled event where entry is granted mainly through accreditation for film professionals, press, filmmakers, and select guests, not through public ticket sales or paid influencer packages. On Thursday, PR professional Pankhuri Harikrishnan alleged on Instagram that several people had been lured to Cannes with fake promises of red-carpet access. "I've been called by various individuals who have been promised carpets, and after they have landed in Cannes, the organisers have vanished," she wrote, questioning the credibility of such middlemen and why walking the carpet has become a social-media status symbol in itself....