Team Café: Congratulations on the BAFTA
nominations. Your reactions?
Ritesh Batra: It’s an incredible honour. I
actually heard the news when I was in London last week and I was pleasantly
surprised. To be on that list, it is pretty amazing for me; I still can’t
believe it. I’m just happy to be nominated and excited to go and meet all these
people next month.
TC: In its production stages, ‘The
Lunchbox’ was an indie movie but when the producers started pouring in,
suddenly it became a studio film. What was the transition like?
RB: As a filmmaker, you can make a film but
you also want to be seen by people. Otherwise it is pointless. I have a baby
girl who was born just five days after ‘The Lunchbox’ shoot. Of course, I have
to provide for her and the family but it’s not just about that. It was about
telling an Indian story to the world. I had stayed away from India for 12 long
years during which India had changed. I wasn’t sure if it would be watched or
received well in India. When we premiered in Cannes , the greatest distributors
from around the world picked up the movie and it sold literally in every market
in the world. And then we started thinking about how to get this movie to
India. That’s when Karan (Johar) and UTV came on board. It was a real blessing
because it meant that a lot of people in India were going to see the movie as
well. In India, we have about 7,000 movie screens while in the US they have
about 45,000 and one-fourth of our population. In China there are 19,000 and
growing very fast. So in India, we aren’t adding movie screens fast enough. It
is not like people do not want to watch these movies; people do not have
anywhere to go. So it becomes really important to have the right of partners on
board – to get the film in theatres and get the movie seen. If it is not in
theatres, it is not going to be on TV either because box office dictates everything.
TC: With multiple producers onboard, did
you still manage to make the movie the way you wanted to? How much of creative
freedom did you have?
RB: I had complete creative freedom. I had
what they call the ‘Final Cut’. All the producers from around the world helped
the movie to be distributed and seen, which is, in many ways, as important as
making a movie.
TC: ‘The Lunchbox’ was your baby right from
the beginning. But post its success, it appeared that a lot of people who were
involved even in smaller capacities were taking credit for its success. Do you
agree?
RB: I feel like everybody who was involved
in the film in a big or small way is a part of it. I’m happy that the success
of the movie rubs off on everyone who was involved in it. It makes me very
happy. That being said, this business is a marathon, it is not a sprint. It has
done wonders for my career; it has done wonders for Nimrat (Kaur) as well.
Irffan (Khan), of course, without him, I don’t think the movie would have had
the reach or the quality that we have been able to achieve. So I have a very
philosophical way of looking at it. I have no problem if people benefit from
the movie and take credit for it.
TC: Are you satisfied with what this film
has fetched you, especially since a lot of people have been riding on its
success?
RB: Absolutely. The movie is travelling, it
is still being seen. We just got a BAFTA nomination. I got this award for Best
First Film from the Toronto Film Critics Association. We beat out a lot of good
movies like ‘Night Crawler’ that came out last year. And then there’s a lot of
interesting work that is coming my way. I don’t think it could have gone in a
better way.
TC: What are the learning points for you
from ‘The Lunchbox’?
RB: When we were working with the actors
and when we were editing, it was all about being honest. We took five months to
edit it and 3-4 months to do the sound design. There were all kinds of pressure
but I didn’t let anything affect the quality of the film given the resources
that we had. Now it is just about doing it over and over again. Writing a movie
and making a movie doesn’t get easier just because you’ve had success. I’ve
learnt specifics about writing a movie, about dealing with people and
situations. In context of BAFTA and the whole Oscar controversy that happened,
my expectation was that we will have help from the Indian government film
bodies, NFDC and industry film bodies to take it even further. Now that I have
the last year or two behind me, my thinking has changed. Now I think, ‘why
should we expect help from anyone?’ A film has its own destiny. It cannot be
affected by anything. It was wrong on my part to expect things because you can
do your job, you cannot expect everyone else to do their job. It is an unfair
expectation to have.
TC: What’s coming next?
RB: Well, I’m working on a book adaptation
of a novel that I love. But I’m not at liberty to talk about it. I’m also
writing an original story that is set in Mumbai. It is called ‘Photograph’. I
would like to work with the same star cast of ‘The Lunchbox’ in it.
