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Fan Ritesh Batra meets James Ivory at New York Indian Film Festival

Batra also watched the American filmmaker's Shakespeare Wallah (1965) on the silver screen at the festival.

The Lunchbox (2013) famed Ritesh Batra was delighted to shake hands with American film director James Ivory after watching his 1965 film Shakespeare Wallah on the silver screen.

"I don't get to brag much, but today I got to see Shakespeare Wallah on the big screen, and got to shake hands with James Ivory after! I love this movie more every time," Batra tweeted after his experience at the New York Indian Film Festival.

Shakespeare Wallah is about a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India, who perform Shakespeare plays in towns across India, amidst a dwindling demand for their work and the rise of the Hindi film industry.

On the work front, Batra will direct The Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss in A Letter From Rosemary Kennedy, a biopic on John F Kennedy's troubled sister. The film, based on a script by Nick Yarborough, portrays the story of John F Kennedy's troubled older sister who was kept from public view and was eventually institutionalised.