Ritesh Batra: Robert Redford has created great legacy at Sundance Film Festival

Filmmaker Ritesh Batra wrapped up filming his latest feature, Photograph, in the city and is headed to the US. He spoke to Cinestaan.com for an interview about his production company, Poetic License Motion Pictures, and later talked about the upcoming Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Batra will attend the festival in January 2018 as an artist trustee. “I’m on the board at Sundance, so I get to spend a little bit of time with [Robert Redford], which I really value, being a part of that," Batra said. "He has created a really great legacy. I came up through the Sundance labs system, so I’m really excited to give back to it in some small way if I can. Working with someone like that is really inspiring.”

Batra's script for his directorial debut, The Lunchbox (2013), went through the 2009 Screenwriters and Directors Labs at Sundance. The film had its world premiere in May 2013 at Cannes in France. Batra stressed the importance of having that early support for his film. 

“It’s a real privilege because people over there are very generous with their time,” he said, adding that in India, “we are not so good at creating institutions and need to become better at it.”

The filmmaker, however, said “MAMI [Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image] is doing an excellent job. It’s a great festival in a very short period of time. I think things are happenings slowly and steadily.”