Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) is a widower who is about to retire from his job as an accountant. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a young wife seeking her husband's (Nakul Vaid) attention and looking for ways to put romance back into her marriage, one of which is to cook delicious food for him. Through a rare mix-up of the famous "dabbawalas" (a complicated system that picks up and delivers lunches from restaurants or homes to people at work) of Mumbai, the lunchbox Ila prepares for her husband gets delivered, instead, to Saajan. Ila eventually realizes the mistake and with the advice of her neighbour aunty (Bharti Achrekar – voice only) living in the apartment above her, writes a letter to Saajan about the mix up and places it in the lunchbox (along with her husband's favorite meal) the next day.

An exchange of the messages sent back and forth with the lunches ignites a friendship between the two, as they share memories and events of their own individual lives. At work, Saajan is tasked with training his replacement, Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), an orphan whose incompetence initially annoys Saajan, who is already socially distant since his wife's death. Saajan and Shaikh gradually get to know each other better and strike a close friendship as well. At one point, Saajan saves Shaikh's job by covering for his blatant mistakes on pay orders and he also becomes his best man at his wedding with Mehrunissa (Shruti Bapna).

At home, Ila finds out that her husband is having an affair and she begins to give up hope on her marriage. In one of the lunchbox letters, she suggests moving to Bhutan where the cost of living is much less than in India. Saajan writes back suggesting that the two move there together. Ila then offers to meet in person at a popular food joint, but at the appointed time Saajan doesn't turn up. Upon receiving an empty lunchbox the next day, Saajan writes back to the dejected Ila and apologizes, saying that he did arrive and saw her from a distance but couldn't approach her. He explains how young and beautiful she looked, while surmising that he is too old for her and advising her to move on.

Some time later, Ila's father, battling with lung cancer, dies in her mother's care. After her mother (Lilette Dubey) confesses how unhappy her marriage was, Ila decides to search for Saajan, but then learns from Shaikh that he has already retired and headed to Nasik. She writes a last farewell message to Saajan announcing that she has decided to leave her husband and move to Bhutan with her young daughter.

Meanwhile, Saajan changes his mind en route to Nasik, returning to Mumbai and going in search of Ila – who is last seen at home waiting for her daughter to return from school – as he gets help from the same dabbawala who regularly picked up and delivered the eponymous lunchbox.

• Irrfan Khan as Saajan Fernandes
• Nimrat Kaur as Ila
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Shaikh
• Denzil Smith as Mr. Shroff, Saajan's office boss
• Bharati Achrekar (voice only) as Mrs. Deshpande, Ila's neighbour
• Nakul Vaid as Rajiv, Ila's husband
• Yashvi Puneet Nagar as Yashvi
• Lillete Dubey as Ila's mother
• Shruti Bapna as Mehrunissa, Shaikh's wife
• Nasir Khan as Ila's father
• Lokesh Rai as Duke's owner
• Sadashiv Kondaji Pokarkar as Dabbawala at Ila's house
• Aarti Rathod as Saajan's neighbour
• Rishi Raj More as Ila's brother
• Krishna Bai as toothless woman in local train
• Santosh Kumar Chaurasia as autorickshaw driver
• Swapnil Shrirao as Duke's waiter
• Baburao Sankpal as Dabbawala at Saajan's office
• Mahesh Mahadev Salavkar as office peon
• Abhijit Khanvilkar as young man in local train

Development

Ritesh Batra, who had made short films, The Morning Ritual, Gareeb Nawaz ki Taxi and Cafe Regular, Cairo, started researching for a documentary on the famous Lunchbox delivery system of Mumbai, dabbawala, known for their efficiency, however after spending a week with them in 2007, he got to know of many interesting personal stories they would overhear while waiting outside an apartment. This idea gave birth to the idea of the film, and instead of making the documentary he began writing a film script. In time the film became joint production between Sikhya Entertainment, DAR motion pictures, National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), India, ROH Films, Germany, ASAP Films, France and the Cine Mosaic, US of Lydia Dean Pilcher who previously produced films like, The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) and The Namesake (2007), and Germany's Match Factory became its international sales agent.

Writing

Batra completed the first draft of the screenplay in 2011. He was assisted by Rutvik Oza. It went on to win an Honorable Jury Mention at the 2012 Cinemart at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Thereafter the project was part of the Talent Project Market of Berlin International Film Festival and was mentored at the screenwriter's lab (Torino Film Lab) at the Torino Film Festival. The character of Ila played by Nimrat Kaur, six months prior to the shooting, and the character played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui was further developed and improvised during shooting.

Casting

Irrfan Khan liked the script of the film and the concept of his character, not speaking much but talking through notes. After seeing Batra's short film and a couple of meetings he agreed to act in the film. Batra wanted to work with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, another principal character of the film, for a long time. For the female lead, auditions were conducted, wherein Nimrat Kaur was selected. Kaur had extensive experience at the Mumbai theatre and worked in films like Peddlers. Some of the dabbawalas who the director befriended while researching for the film, also were cast in minor roles.

Filming

The film was shot in 2012 in Mumbai at a budget of ?220 million. Prior to the filming, the cast rehearsed for six months. It was shot using the Arri Alexa digital film camera. Many of the scenes were logistically broken down to make way for last minute location changes. According to Ritesh Batra, scenes on the train involved the use of only one compartment, and even included actual local commuters when needed.

Principal photography lasted 29 days, with a majority of the film's scenes done in three weeks. Afterwards, footage taken in a documentary manner were shot. Mumbai's famous dabbawalas were provided actual lunchboxes to deliver, and followed by a four-member film crew, which filmed the process in documentary style.

Screenings and film festivals

The film was screened on 19 May 2013 as a part of the International Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation and positive reviews. and won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award also known as Grand Rail d'Or. Variety called it "a notable debut from tyro helmer-scripter Ritesh Batra", for creating a film with "crossover appeal of Monsoon Wedding", and also praised acting of Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur.

Thereafter, Sony Pictures Classics picked up all North American rights for distribution.

In India, this film was released in more than 400 screens on 20 September 2013.

Box office

The Lunchbox grossed ?71 million in its first weekend of release in India, and ?110 million in its first week. The film continued to gross significant amounts over the next few weeks, earning over ?200 million in the first three weeks and another estimated ?40–50 lakhs on its fourth weekend.

In the United States, The Lunchbox grossed $4.23 million, and was 2014's third highest grossing foreign film behind Cantinflas and P.K.. By 28 May 2014, the film's worldwide collection was ?84.92 crore. In its lifetime run, the film's worldwide gross was ?100.85 crore (US$17.24 million).^[3] Most of its gross was from overseas, becoming 2013's third highest-grossing Indian film overseas, after Dhoom 3 and Chennai Express.^[30] It was Irrfan Khan's highest-grossing Hindi film, up until it was surpassed by Hindi Medium (2017).^[9]

Critical reception

Lunchbox received widespread critical acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 96% based on reviews from 97 critics, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's consensus is: "Warm, affectionate, and sweet but not cloying, The Lunchbox is a clever crowd-pleaser from first-time director Ritesh Batra".^[31]

Critic Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave a rating of 5/5 to the film stating, "The greatest love stories are the ones that make you root for the protagonists to come together, despite their destinies. This film illustrates how love transforms the unlikeliest of people."^[32] Pratim D. Gupta of The Telegraph gave two thumbs up to The Lunchbox calling it "as much a moving and muted love story as it is an evocative portrayal of loneliness."^[33] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the movie a 4/5 stating, "A well-told old-fashioned romance, The Lunchbox gracefully unknots the trials, tribulations, fears and hopes of everyday people sans the glamour that the city of Mumbai has become synonymous with."^[34] Karan Anshuman of the MumbaiMirror also went with a perfect score of 5/5 saying the film was, "one of the best films to come out of India in a long time."^[35]

Raja Sen of Rediff.com praised the fil