{"id":641853,"date":"2026-10-26T14:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T14:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641853\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T14:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T14:22:09","slug":"saif-ali-khan-vidya-balan-melanie-laurent-set-for-long-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641853\/","title":{"rendered":"Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan & M\u00e9lanie Laurent Set For ‘Long Years Ago’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Bollywood icons Saif Ali Khan (Sacred Games) and Vidya Balan (Jailer 2) will star with M\u00e9lanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) in The Lunchbox filmmaker Ritesh Batra<\/a>\u2019s next film Long Years Ago<\/a>, which is now underway in Mumbai.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe comedy-drama heralds from Adeel Ahmed and writer-director Batra\u2019s film and TV outfit Poetic License, and is being produced in partnership with Jio Studios (Dhurandhar), and Good Chaos (Ballad Of A Small Player). Jyoti Deshpande is producing for Jio, while Good Chaos\u2019s Mike Goodridge and Teresa Moneo serve as executive producers, as does Siddharth Mehra.<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in 1991, Long Years Ago \u201cis the story of a family that has gone too long without saying the things that matter, and what happens when they\u2019re finally forced to find the words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am tremendously honored to be working with Saif, Vidya and Melanie, and to see these great actors bring characters that are so close to my heart to life,\u201d said Ritesh Batra.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRitesh has an extraordinary gift for telling deeply personal stories that resonate across cultures. Long Years Ago is a film about love, family, and the things we often struggle to say to one another, and I felt an immediate connection to it. Collaborating with Melanie, Vidya, and this exceptional team is exciting, and I can\u2019t wait for audiences around the world to experience this deeply moving story,\u201d commented Saif Ali Khan.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m absolutely thrilled to be a part of Ritesh Batra\u2019s next film. I\u2019ve been a huge admirer of his work ever since The Lunchbox, and have been hoping to collaborate with him for the longest time. There\u2019s such a beautiful sensitivity and honesty to his storytelling. What makes this even more special is that I get to reunite with Saif after Parineeta, my very first film! I can\u2019t wait to experience the magic of working with both Ritesh and Saif,\u201d added Vidya Balan.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI met Ritesh fifteen years ago at the Marrakech Film Festival, and we shared this dream to meet in Mumbai one day. I immediately loved this new project, and I am more than honored and happy to be a part of it,\u201d noted M\u00e9lanie Laurent.<\/p>\n

\n\tBatra made his name with The Lunchbox, which premiered at Cannes and became one of the highest-grossing releases of the year in India. He went on to direct Our Souls at Night with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and the Sundance title Photograph, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra. Most recently, he directed the first block of the upcoming Netflix series Unaccustomed Earth.<\/p>\n

\n\tPoetic License also has projects in development with HBO and A24. The company\u2019s theater work began with The Lunchbox Musical, written by Batra and adapted from his 2013 film. The production played a sold-out run at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.<\/p>\n

\n\tDil Chahta Hai, Omkara and Sacred Games star Saif Ali Khan, and National Award winner Vidya Balan, are both icons of the screen in their native India. C\u00e9sar winner Laurent is known for movies including Inglourious Basterds and Now You See Me.<\/p>\n

\n\tFormer A24 exec Mehra worked on shows including Beef and Mo for Netflix, before launching label Total Monsoon. His first production, Crystal Lake (a prequel series to the Friday the 13th movies from Brad Caleb Kane, Linda Cardellini and A24) premiered on Peacock + Sky on October 15. Upcoming are Superfakes for A24, and Long Years Ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Bollywood icons Saif Ali Khan (Sacred Games) and Vidya Balan (Jailer 2) will star with M\u00e9lanie Laurent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,314751,409,111,139,69,311852],"class_list":["post-641853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-long-years-ago","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ritesh-batra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}