After the success of the bittersweet love story ‘The Lunchbox’, which featured actors Irrfan, Nimrat kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, buzz is that director Ritesh Batra is writing his next film which is again set in Mumbai.
‘The Lunchbox’ also garnered much critical acclaim both in India and abroad, except for the controversy over it being overlooked as the Oscar entry from India last year. But looks like Batra has put the disappointment behind him as he feels that film bodies and old guard in India will take time to understand how global cinema world works. In fact the director is now focusing in telling stories that are rooted in India but are universal in their appeal.
“I am writing my next film. No matter how big your last success was, the writing does not get easier. This process is really important for me. I want to begin shooting my film by next year, probably mid-2015. It is going to be a drama that is set in Mumbai,” Batra said while talking about his film.
On being asked about the cast of his next project, he replied, “One of the reasons why the film worked was the wonderful collaboration between these three actors. I would love to have any excuse to work with them again. But I am writing so I can’t say much about the cast.”
As far as ‘The Lunchbox’ is concerned, Batra said that the film has been a blessing for everyone involved. “The movie continues to travel to different places even now. It’s a lesson for me on how a good film speaks for itself. It was a blessing for all of us. ‘The Lunchbox’ will live years from now. It is a gift for our careers,” he said.
He further added that now he is not bothered that his other films would be compared to ‘The Lunchbox’, as he belives in only making that he cares about. “In arts, anything you do, comes from you. The three main characters in ‘Lunchbox’ are me in different ways. I am a different person now, I am a father and I care for different things. As a person you keep changing and so do your stories. You have to steal from your own life to write and make a movie so you have to care enough for it,” he said.
