'Nawazuddin Siddiqui has an innate goodness'

With a screening at the Berlinale earning his leading lady Sanya Malhotra a spot on Hollywood Reporters list of top five talents to watch out for writerdirector Ritesh Batra knows that Photograph is off to a good start Six years after The Lunchbox 2013 Batra is back in Bollywood romancing the city he loves Mumbai In a conversation with midday he chronicles the importance of being a stickler for details and a seeker of local flavoursEdited excerpts from the interviewWhat made you revisit the ageold richgirlpoorguy love story theme againI grew up watching the Hindi movies in the 80s and 90s on the same theme where the man was always a motor mechanic while the girl had a bad attitude So I thought why not make a film of a rich girl and a poor guy but one that was organic something a viewer could actually believe I got interested in understanding who these two people are the characters that Nawaz Nawazuddin Siddiquiand Sanya play I wrote the climax scene first and when you see the film youll notice that for me it really became about the last sceneRitesh Batra and Nawazuddin Siddiqui behind the scenesWas Siddiqui your first choice when writing the part of Rafi or did you cast him after doing soNawaz has an innate goodness about him like this character does Even in my last film The Lunchbox he played someone who is good Thats how I see him Id say hes playing himself in the movie which is not an easy thing to do and we dont see him doing that often But casting always comes in after the writing Theres a whole another world thats not in the trailer Geetanjali Kulkarni as Sanyas friend and maid has a good part in the movie Vijay Raaz has a special part as does Jim SarbhCan you chronicle the prep that Nawaz went through to play a photographerHe had a photographer from the Gateway of India to train him on how to use the camera and printer so it looks professional something he does every day and is versed with He did it for about three weeks only since he is so busyWhat prompted Malhotras casting for the character of MiloniI saw her in Dangal 2016 and thought she was great I sent her the script and she was wonderful in the audition Sanya is a meticulous and talented actor She says a lot with her silence Thats what we needed for this partHighlighting the importance of paying heed to details youd once stated that the more local a film is the more universal it would be How do you capture the flavour of any placeIn Photograph we spent time figuring out where these people would live and what they would wear Even when shooting the scenes involving Milonis apartment on set we stayed true to the dimensions of an actual apartment We wanted to experience the restrictions of working in a real space even though we were on set We focused on small details like the bus they would take or what the conductor would say The more local and specific the film is the more it will matterWhen filming in a city I know little about Im always worried about getting it details right Theres an investment of time and effort that is done When I made Our Souls At Night 2017 I spent a lot of time in Colorado understanding the place and locations where we could believably set the scene Fortunately a lot of the core scenes of the movie were in a bedroom but even the things they talk about their lives and past must reflect the city So understanding a place and its rhythm is important I dont know if I always get it right but I tryYouve often chronicled your love for Mumbai What part of the city makes you nostalgicWhat I love about the city and whats also in the movie is how the old and new coexist This doesnt happen in a lot of other cities Like in this film Nawazs character is a photographer who prints photos and gives it to people That still exists in the city today even while you have people taking photos on phonesDo you think that with both The Lunchbox and this film you are shattering the stereotype of a quintessential romantic hero in BollywoodIt is important that people watch films in theatres so I appreciate the role of commercial cinema It serves a lot of purposes In the West people have stopped going to theatres But commercial films drive people to cinema halls here and that is something that must happen Also if everyone made the same films it would be boring Its nice that people can watch something this week and something entirely different in the next When The Lunchbox did well I was happy and surprised but also knew that one movie wouldnt change anything But last year many smallbudget movies have succeededWhat would you say is the toughest part of surviving in this industryDoing what you love to do consistentlyWhat would you say has been your biggest evolution as a filmmakerIve learnt how tough it is to adapt and have become better at it Also I believe that if Im not working Im at sea Its important to keep working If you get a chance to do something you enjoy you should keep doing that Write the film you love and try to get it made The business of sitting and waiting for the perfect script isnt one I believe in Thats something thats change in meWhat is the most difficult part of pulling off an adaptationI gauge that a novel is prose but a film is a poem it is a visual poetry So how do you translate that When it works it is beautiful The process of doing so needs enough time so people must take the two three or five years that it takesFilms adapted by BatraThe Sense Of An Ending The 2017 American drama featured Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling and enjoyed its world premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival that year It was adapted from Julian Barness novel by the same nameOur Souls At Night With a world premiegravere at the Venice Film Festival Our Souls At Night opened to a rousing reception from the word go The Jane Fonda and Robert Redford starrer for Netflix was adapted by Kent Harufs book by the same nameAlso ReadIn the modern age relive old school romance with Tum Ne Mujhe Dekha in 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