The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra isn’t worried about the pressure his next movie is under. He’s just doing his job
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; March 13, 2016)

"One of my favourite love stories is Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” says The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra over the phone from London. It’s his love for love stories that may have propelled him towards his second film, The Sense Of An Ending, adapted from Julian Barnes’s novel of the same name. The story is about Tony Webster (played by Jim Broadbent), who goes back to his past and reflects on the paths he and his friends have taken. There is also a melancholic, unrequited love story in there. “I guess it’s true that I gravitate towards stories about relationships. The Lunchbox was supposed to be a movie about the dabbawala system. But it turned out to be love story.” Batra, 36, was not new to Barnes’ work when BBC Films approached him to direct the movie. “I have always been a fan,” says the filmmaker, who now divides his time between London and Mumbai. He then read the screenplay, written by Nick Payne, and realised that they could collaborate well.

But it was meeting Barnes that really cinched the deal. “He had seen The Lunchbox and loved it. And he was very generous about the liberties we could take with his book, like all great writers. But we have tried to compliment the book as much as we can. It was good, though, that Barnes gave us the go- ahead to betray him.”

The Lunchbox, which starred Irrfan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazzudin Siddiqui, was a critical success, a festival favourite and was nominated for a BAFTA. If he is bogged down by the pressure to perform with his second movie, he doesn’t let on. “It’s not a sport, where you need to outdo yourself and push yourself for better time. Writing and directing doesn’t work that way…” he muses, and then adds, “You just go ahead and work. I am just doing a job. If the movie does well, it helps pave the way for a better movie. I was overwhelmed with the way The Lunchbox did, but hopefully this will do as well. But there is no pressure. All you have to do is be honest with your art. If you are not, the Gods of storytelling will take their hands off you.”

He does say that his third movie, which he is already working on, will be in Hindi and based in Mumbai, his home. But he does wish India had a film body that promoted Indian movies, with Indian actors, internationally. “This is why sometimes you need the private sector to step in. We need an umbrella body that wants to share Indian stories. These need to be headed by smart, visionary people, who know how things in the outside world work,” he says.

As he gets ready to put the finishing touches to the movie, he says he is too busy, except for spending time with his three-year-old daughter. “I do cook a lot. But yes, I would like to take up photography, or learn a language. You know all the things everyone wants to do and not do. Ah, well.”

Ritesh Batra speaks to Ananya Ghosh about directing an adaptation of Julian Barnes’s award- winning novel The Sense Of An Ending
Ananya Ghosh (MID-DAY; May 31, 2015)

The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra has finally announced his next full-length film, and this time it is an international collaboration — he will direct the BBC adaptation of Julian Barnes’s 2011 Man Booker Prizewinning novel The Sense Of An Ending. The movie will star Academy Award-winning actor Jim Broadbent and the rest of the cast is yet to be finalised.

“It came to me as an offer to direct. I always thought I would direct my own writings and I have been writing a few scripts. I took up this project not only because it is a very important piece of literature and I have always liked the book, but also because I absolutely loved the script. Making movies from books is no easy task. It has to function on its own. The film is about those characters that we love from the book, but it is also its own thing. It has to be self sufficient. Each medium has its own demands. Books can be thoughts, streams of consciousness, first person narratives etc. But movies have to be told through relationships,” says Batra, when we meet him in his Bandra office — a sparsely furnished room with two huge blackboards overflowing with illegible haphazard scribbling. Thought bubbles of a writer’s hyperactive mind? Maybe.

Award-winning playwright Nick Payne, whose play Constellations starring Jake Gyllenhaal has recently been on Broadway, is making his film debut with the screenplay of this film. And Batra, a scriptwriter himself, is quite excited about the collaboration and says, “I have been working very closely with Payne for the past seven months. It is very difficult to find a good collaborator, as most writers prefer to work alone. The novel is extremely British and I am not. So, it is important to have someone who brings that to the table to get the real essence of the story.”

It has been two years since The Lunchbox. The Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur-starrer had picked up the Grand Rail d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. In the meantime, Batra has made an eight-minute short film The Masterchef as part of the Sundance Short Film Challenge. “I can’t churn out a movie every year. Writing a script takes time and according to me the script is the most important part of a movie. If you do not write it right, you can’t salvage it at any other later stage,” says Batra, who has already finished writing his next film, Photograph — a love story set in the city, which he intends to start shooting early next year after wrapping up this project.

However, he adds that the script is not sacrosanct but keeps evolving as the film goes on floors. “It is not a stone on your foot that weighs you down, but something that anchors you and gives you direction. You can say that a script is a blueprint for a movie. However, unlike in engineering where if you do not adhere to the architectural drawing to a T, the structure runs the risk of collapsing, in filmmaking, the blueprint provides a guiding structure and is flexible. When I shoot a film, my actors become my co-writers and then on the editing table, I rewrite portions along with my editors. At every step the product changes,” the director patiently explains, finishing almost half a packet of biscuits in the process.

He also lays equal importance on the preparation. And when we met him on Tuesday, the director is busy getting ready for his flight to Britain. “We are shooting in a few months and I am flying there to absorb the essence of the place. I need to know my way around the place as I know my way around here. You have to dwell in the world of the story to do proper justice to it,” says the Bandra boy, revealing that he lived in Cairo for five months before shooting his eleven-minute short film, Café Regular, Cairo, which got special mentions in both Tribeca International Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival in 2012.

The Lunchbox had helped garner interest for Indian films across the world. Point this out and the writer/director of this success story is unwilling to take all the credit and says modestly, “It is unfair to give my movie credit for getting world audience take note of India. Satyajit Ray had done it long back. A story that is universal, yet local, lives forever. I think that is what we should aim for and not some big weekend collection.”

However, he acknowledges that there is a renewed interest for film coming from the subcontinent. “It definitely generated curiosity on what is coming out of India,” he says, adding, “We have to tell Indian stories to the world. But it is a very critical time for us — exciting, yet sensitive. Even during the ’80s a group of committed people had created an audience for parallel movies, but eventually it all faded away. We need film bodies, which will help filmmakers create global stories with a local heart. We also have to find newer markets for Indian films. Otherwise we will have one-off successes.”

Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 13, 2015)

After the exceptional response to his directorial debut, The Lunchbox, Ritesh Batra's next is a British production, which will be bankrolled by the BBC in collaboration with two American companies.

The filmmaker will adapt Julian Barnes' eleventh novel, The Sense Of An Ending, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2011. The book divided into two parts, details two suicides, both narrated by Tony Webster, a retired man living alone, who begins to reassess his life after receiving a curious letter.

Confirming this, Batra told Mirror, "I never thought I'd direct something which I haven't written, but playwright Nick Payne has done such an outstanding job in adapting the script that I'd be silly to let go of this offer."

The duo has been working together since November and Batra describes it as a unique, enriching process. " I've grown and evolved as the film has developed. I've been a great admirer of Barnes' work and to get to direct one of his great works is blissful," exults Batra.

Since it's a British story and production, Batra says it's unlikely that any Indian artistes will be involved. He compares his lead star, Oscar-winning actor of Iris, Jim Broadbent, to his The Lunchbox star, Irrfan Khan. "They are both naturally gifted actors who have made unusual career choices and carved a distinct niche for themselves. Jim's performance in Topsy Turvy and Iris, for which he won an Oscar are fantastic. I'm thrilled to direct him."

After The Lunchbox, does he feel the pressure to make another film which will please both critics and the audiences? "Not really. Films aren't like the share bazaar, they are a personal and an internal journey. where one grows with it."

Like The Lunchbox, this film too has a letter as an important plot point. "Yes, but I think there will be more synergy in the tone - funny and sad, something I think I manage to do well," he smiles.