Amazon Studios’ Photograph is the story of a struggling Mumbai street photographer pressured to marry by his grandmother convinces a shy stranger to pose as his fiancée during a family visit. Despite vast cultural differences, the pair develops a surprising connection that challenges their worldviews in a wistful and funny romance from Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox).
Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) came to Mumbai from a small village to earn money to pay off an old family debt. Working as a street photographer, he shares one small room with friends and sends almost everything he makes to his grandmother, Dadi (Farrukh Jaffar), in the hope she will be able to buy back her ancestral home. To satisfy the elderly woman’s desire for him to marry, he sends her a photo of a shy stranger, claiming that the girl, Miloni (Sanya Malhotra), is his fiancée. When his grandmother insists on a meeting, he tracks Miloni down and asks her to pretend to be his betrothed.
A sheltered young woman studying to become an accountant, Miloni lives a quiet, middle class life with her parents, and awaits an arranged marriage to a suitable boy when she finishes school. She impulsively agrees to Rafi’s scheme, opening the door to an unexpected adventure at the crossroads of tradition and modernity.
To learn more about Amazon Studios’ Photograph, please watch our interview with Ritesh Batra:
Featuring some of Indian cinema’s most popular actors, Photograph is a heartwarming and comical snapshot of life in contemporary Mumbai.
Written and directed by Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox, Our Souls at Night), Photograph stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui (The Lunchbox, Bajrangi Bhaijaan) , Sanya Malhotra (Badhaai Ho, Dangal), Vijay Raaz (Monsoon Wedding, Run), Virendra Saxena (A Wednesday, Krishna), and Farrukh Jaffar (Swades, Sultan).
Ritesh Batra (Director) made his feature directorial debut with the 2013 drama The Lunchbox, which was supported by the Sundance Institute and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for a 2015 BAFTA Award. Batra has since directed Our Souls at Night, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and The Sense of an Ending, starring Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling.