Ritesh Batra is an Indian Director who was born in Mumbai, Índia, on June 12th of 1979.

Best known for his debut feature film The Lunchbox (2013) starring Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Nimrat Kaur. Starting out by making a solid impression in the international film scene, the director received international acclaim and praise for his work that premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2013 and took home the Rail d’Or award. Additionally, he also won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best First Feature Film in 2014 and was nominated for a BAFTA in the category Film Not in the English language in 2015, also for The Lunchbox.

Having moved to New York to study cinema, his filmmaking career started with the writing and directing of short-films. His latest short, Café Regular, Cairo (2012) was screened in over 40 international film festivals and won more than 12 awards including the FIPRESCI prize, besides having received special mentions from the jury at the Chicago and Tribeca Film Festivals.

In 2009, Story of Ram was selected by Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab and, later, spawned into The Lunchbox, a touching story about the lunchbox delivery system in Mumbai that intends to portray the city’s reality. After the huge success that was The Lunchbox, Batra made two movies: The Sense of an Ending (2017) and Our Souls at Night (2017) which he did not write.

However, passionate about creating his own narratives, Photograph (2019) is the latest work that combines his writing and directing. Having had its European premiere at Berlinale, Ritesh Batra’s most recent film tells the story of an Indian street photographer, that roams the streets of Mumbai but is pressured to be married by his grandmother. He then convinces a stranger to pose as his fiancé and they form a bond.

His film Little Bee is his latest directing experience and is currently in post-production.