Ritesh Batra has come a long way since The Lunchbox. After the globally acclaimed film, he’s moved on to his next movie, starring Hollywood legends, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
The director, who’s currently in Colorado, US, shooting for the movie says, “It’s based on a novel called Our Souls At Night, the last novel American writer Kent Haruf penned before he passed away. It’s a story set in Colorado about two ageing people, who find happiness together. It’s a highly regarded novel.”
Ritesh couldn’t be more thrilled to work with Robert and Jane. “They are wonderful!” he exclaims. “Extremely generous people. They’re both wonderful and so eager and curious about their characters.”
The Hollywood veterans play a couple rediscovering love in their twilight years. As far as the screen adaptations go, not too many changes have been made, except for one character. Elaborates Ritesh, “The daughter’s character has more of a presence in my film, whereas she was just mentioned in the novel. I have to work towards fitting the written work into a new medium, while retaining the soul of the novel. The book and the film have to be like cousins — nice companions to one another.”
Ritesh’s barely been in India lately. “I was in London shooting another project, The Sense of an Ending, a screen adaptation of Julian Barnes’ novel, featuring Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling for a year. I went back to Mumbai for three weeks and now I’m here in Colorado,” he smiles. “My next film is set in India, but right now I’m busy with Our Souls At Night. We complete shooting by the end of the year.”
