Mad, Sad & Bad: Avie Luthra interview

Fresh from taking part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival's Directors' Lab scheme, Avie Luthra talks to Film Network about working with esteemed talents such as Meera Syal on his first feature film.

Avie Luthra has had such an itinerant career to date that he's almost guaranteed to give an interesting interview. Having earned a reputation as a writer for radio and television, contributing to acclaimed miniseries like BBC's Canterbury Tales, Avie decided to take a hiatus from writing in order to hone his directing skills at the National Film and Television School. His graduation film, Baby, duly won a Royal Television Society Award in 2002.

So far this is all pretty standard, but in addition Avie has also been a practising psychiatrist during much of this period, managing to take regular sabbaticals from his daily profession to go off and shoot short films and TV dramas.

Meera Syal as the put-upon sister Rashmi.

Much of his early work has been based on themes of race relations and cultural differences, such as Cross My Heart, about a relationship between an Indian man and his black girlfriend. Similarly his acclaimed short Lucky followed a young AIDS orphan in South Africa whose only hope is his eccentric Asian neighbour.

Mad, Sad & Bad, his first feature film, ostensibly develops his theme further by focusing on the fortunes of three siblings of Asian descent. Luthra has been lucky enough to call upon a top-notch British cast for his full-length debut, including Meera Syal, Andrea Riseborough and Nitin Ganatra, and the director is hopeful that having a feature under his belt, along with the experience of being involved in the Directors' Lab scheme, will stand him in good stead for a continuing career in directing. Whether his psychiatry practice will remain so accommodating now that Luthra is a fully paid-up filmmaker remains to be seen...

We caught up with Avie during a break from his participation in the Directors' Lab at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June 2009.

Mad Sad & Bad is released nationwide in UK cinemas on Friday 31st July 2009

Interview and text: James Rocarols; Video: Stephen Bailey Published 27th July 09