‘I have a lot of respect for Satyajit Ray, but I’m a little tired of stereotypes of Indian poverty’

Siddartha Jatla discusses the grim plot of In the Belly of a Tiger, why his villagers wear brightly coloured clothes and why every frame is suffused with beauty

At the end of his first research trip to northern Uttar Pradesh, half the village came to see him off, says director and cinematographer Siddartha Jatla. “I was there to learn more about a report that said local families were sending older members into the forest to be tiger prey so they could collect compensation from the government. I am from Hyderabad and don’t speak Hindi very well, so I was very worried about how they would react to me,”