Deepa Bhatia on being selected for 2024 BAFTA Breakthrough India: 'Gives us the chance to interact with talent in the UK'

Deepa Bhatia. Pics/Instagram, X

In November, director-editor Deepa Bhatia was named among the nine BAFTA Breakthroughs of India, alongside lyricist-director Varun Grover, sound designer Dhiman Karmakar and others. When we meet her, we ask her what the recognition means for her. She quips that it comes with the chance of meeting Fleabag writer-star Phoebe Waller Bridge, as a part of the academy's 12,000-member network. "Besides voting in the BAFTA, it gives us the chance to interact with talent in the UK. If I'm writing something and want to have a conversation with somebody who has worked on a similar subject, [it affords me that]. These opportunities [enhance] peer learning and exchange of thoughts. I'm eager to see how it can help me in the projects I'm developing," she says.

The recognition honours her long career in the movies. One of the finest editors in Hindi cinema, Bhatia expanded her craft to filmmaking with the documentary, First Act (2023), which explored the psyche of child actors. She rues that the phenomenon of fame-hungry parents pushing their kids continues in other forms too. "Look at social media. Babies will have make-up put on them, and the children's parents are managing these accounts! The desire for fame is uncontrollable. It's unhealthy. I am happy that Australia has banned social media [for those under 16]. It's hard to do this in India, given our vastness. Also, it's conflicting in terms of free speech and democratic expression," she states.

Now, Bhatia is adapting P Sainath's book, The Last Heroes. It marks her second collaboration with Sainath after Nero's Guests (2009). She says, "His book left a big impact on me. It's an ambitious project. It focuses on the women and children [in the freedom struggle]. We usually don't celebrate the bravery of our foot soldiers. I'm looking at it in a poetic way."