Ritesh Batra

Batra worked across film director, screenwriter and director. This article rests on 1 published texts and 12 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Ritesh Batra • Born — 12 June 1979 • Birthplace — Mumbai, Maharashtra, India • Education — Tisch School of Arts • Occupation — Film director Screenwriter • Years Active — 2008–present

Ritesh grew up in a middle-class family in Mumbai, India. His father Joginder Batra, worked in the Merchant Navy of India and his mother Manju Kapoor Batra, is a house wife. His elder sister Radhika Batra Shah runs a tea business. Ritesh completed his high school from AVM High School in Mumbai and later went to the United States to complete his higher studies. Ritesh worked as a consultant at Deloitte after graduating from Drake University, Iowa in Economics. But after three years of working he went back to school to chase his childhood dream of filmmaking. He attended New York University but dropped out of the film school.

Batra began his filmmaking career by writing and directing shorts. His Arab language short Café Regular, Cairo, screened at over 40 international film festivals and won over 12 awards including Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) Best Film at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and Best Film at German Star of India. Batra was part of the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors lab with his project "Story of Ram" in 2009. He subsequently was made the Time Warner Story Telling Fellow at Sundance Film Festival and Annenberg Fellow at Sundance Film Academy. In 2011 Batra returned to India to make a documentary on the lunchbox delivery system in Mumbai. It was this venture of Batra's which conceptualized his first feature film The Lunchbox (2013). He developed this project through the TorinoFilmLab Framework programme in 2012. The Lunchbox premiered at the Cannes Critics Week 2013 and won Rail d'Or (Grand Golden Rail). At Cannes the movie prompted a bidding war. Sony Pictures Classic acquired the North American rights to the film. The Lunchbox has been nominated for 33 Awards and won 25 so far. In 2014, Batra founded his own production company PoeticLicense Motion Pictures and is currently developing a slate of films.

Short film • The Morning Ritual (2008) • Gareeb Nawaz's Taxi (2010) • Café Regular Cairo (2011) • Masterchef (2013) Feature film • The Lunchbox (2013) • The Sense of an Ending (2017) • Our Souls at Night (2017) • Photograph (2019)

Ritesh Batra was born on 12 June 1979 in Mumbai. Batra held the nationality of India. Batra was educated at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Batra worked for the screen, as film director and screenwriter. 5 films survive in the institutional catalogues, spanning 2011 to 2019. They are Café Regular, Cairo (2011), The Lunchbox (2013), The Sense of an Ending (2017), Our Souls at Night (2017) and Photograph (2019).