Ritesh Batra’s The lunchbox, which was snubbed at the Oscars last year, has now been nominated for the BAFTA Awards 2015
The lunchbox has still got much to offer. After being snubbed at Oscars in 2013, Ritesh Batra’s directorial movie has now been nominated at the BAFTA Awards 2015. It has cleared ‘Film Not in the English language’ category. The team is ecstatic. Ecstatic about this new achievement, Batra says, “It’s an honour to be nominated alongside the finest films of the year, much credit to my whole team and the work we did together. It’s a good validation to tell Indian stories to the world, if we don’t tell our own stories, no one else will.”
The nominations for the awards, organised annually by BAFTA, were announced in london. The lunchbox, starring Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur, is competing with Polish-Danish drama film Ida, Russian drama leviathan, Brazilian-British adventure drama thriller film Trash and Belgian drama Two Days, One Night, according to the official BAFTA website. The movie is a love story between a lovelorn wife and a lonely man. While it released in India in 2013, it hit the British screens only in 2014, making it eligible for the nominations this time. The lunchbox, became the first Indian film to be declared the highest grossing foreign language film of 2014 in the US, Europe and Australia/New Zealand. It has grossed upwards 25 million USD, Rs160 crore worldwide.
“I’m in london right now... we are honoured to be nominated alongside the finest films of the year. It’s a great way to start the new year,” says Batra. The film’s lead actress Nimrat took to Twitter and gushed: “A BAFTA Nomination for #Thelunchbox!! Big love and congrats to the whole team. (sic)” Co-producer Guneet Monga of Sikhya Entertainment shared: “Soo awesome! The lunchbox nominated for BAFTA!!! Thank you @riteshbatra for creating soo much magic... love. (sic)”
Congratulatory messages for the cast and crew also came in from industry members like Sujoy Ghosh, Hansal Mehta and Nikhil Advani. The nomination turns out to be extra special for the team, especially as the Film Federation of India (FFI) had, in 2013, chosen Gujarati film The Good Road over The lunchbox as India’s entry for the best foreign film at the Academy Awards despite the buzz around it.
Mehta made a tongue-in-cheek comment, saying: “So obviously the Film Federation of India knows better than #BAFTA. Congratulations @riteshbatra, @NimratOfficial, @irrfan_k and @guneetm (sic).”