Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 10, 2015)

February 23, 2003... The Warrior was the 'surprise' winner as it beat four other films, including Bend It Like Beckham, to be adjudged Best British Film at the 54th British Film And Television Awards (BAFTA) held at Central London's Leicester Square.

It's director, Asif Kapadia, who bagged the Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement in First Feature Film category, walked onstage and admitted he had no idea what to say.

Sitting in the audience, his 'Warrior', Irrfan Khan, on his first trip abroad, finally understood why Asif had insisted he watch the film earlier, asserting that he'd be overwhelmed on the big night. "I didn't understand what he meant, till I heard Asif talk about visiting the theatre as a young boy. It was like a dream," Irrfan recalls. Asif's win was all the more poignant because his story of a Rajasthani warrior renouncing violence and retreating to the Himalayas, was rejected as the official British entry for the Oscars. The Academy argued that Hindi was not representative of the languages spoken in the UK.

Twelve years later, another Irrfan Khan starrer, The Lunchbox, has been nominated for the BAFTAS in the category of Best Film Not in the English Language. This victory too came after a snub.

The film was overlooked last year by the selection committee back home as India's official entry for the Oscars in the Foreign Language category. The committee had chosen The Good Road.

Bring up the earlier disappointment and Irrfan, one of the film's producers, says, "This nomination is a reminder to the selection committee. It's a reminder that we don't have to replicate stories. If we can find subjects from our own lives and narrate them in an engaging way, we can connect with the world. The Lunchbox is a path-breaking film, with the business its done across the globe and the critical acclaim it has bagged everywhere. It's created an identity for Indian cinema."

Quiz him on whether the film's director, Ritesh Batra, has approached him for his next and Irrfan says, "He's been working on several subjects, but there's one which is an adaptation of a book, whose first draft was sent to me by him. It had some great possibilities and I'm looking forward to hearing from Ritesh again."

He's also waiting for the final script of the Indo-French co-production, Divine Lovers, co-starring Kangana Ranaut, and for his and Aishwarya Bachchan's managers to sort out their dates for Sanjay Gupta's Jazbaa.

Meanwhile, he's been working on Madari with Nishikant Kamat. "We're waiting for a song from Vishal (Bhardwaj) which will be the film's sutradhar,"he informs. "There's another quirky comedy I'm excited about, being directed by Abhinay Deo."

His Hollywood biggie, Jurrasic World, is gearing up for a June 12 release. He's impressed with director Collin Treverrow but will wait to comment on his role till he sees the film to ascertain what scenes have been retained and their impact. "The new dinosaurs are the real stars," he says.

For now the BAFTAS are on his mind. "The Warrior was the beginning. Now, I'm an internationally established actor going with an Indian film which has done well all over the world," he points out."I expect to be overwhelmed again!"
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Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; January 10, 2015)

Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox has been nominated in the Best Foreign Film category for the upcoming British Academy Film awards. The last Indian nomination at the prestigious event was Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay (1988).

The nominations were announced by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) yesterday. Director Ritesh Batra says, “It is an honour to be nominated alongside the finest films of the year and the credit goes to my entire team. If we don’t tell our own (Indian) stories, no one else will.” The Lunchbox, which released in 2013 in India, was screened in several countries and did a business of US$ 22 million across 48 territories.

Producer Guneet Monga says, “Earning a foreign film nomination at BAFTA is yet another reassurance that great content will always go a long way.”