‘The Lunchbox’ is highest desi grosser this year in North America.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: When thinking about the kings of Bollywood, most people immediately name the Khans – Shahrukh, Salman, Aamir, and so on – but in North America, it looks like Irrfan Khan has them all beat.
Hindi film The Lunchbox – which has been a critical darling ever since it debuted at film festivals late last year, and subsequently went into wide release earlier this year – is now the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2014 at the North American box office.
The film, directed by Ritesh Batra and starring Khan (Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi), has surpassed the Salman Khan starrer Jai Ho and Kangana Raunat’s Queen in total box office receipts in North America thus far this year. Those two films have each grossed $1.3 million, while The Lunchbox is now at $1.45 million and growing. The announcement comes as The Lunchbox enters its seventh weekend in North American theaters, playing in only 129 locations in limited release. So far, The Lunchbox has grossed over $3 million worldwide.
Co-starring Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, The Lunchbox is about a widower (Khan) and an unhappy housewife (Kaur) who exchange notes to each other anonymously via a lunchbox, delivered to Khan’s character by a “dabbawala” (Siddiqui). Through these notes, the two develop a touching friendship as they both open up to each other in ways they’ve never been able to with their own families and spouses.
The Lunchbox has received rave reviews from nearly all the leading publications in the US, such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Writing for the New York Times, critic A.O. Scott called the film “touching and credible,” while Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan wrote that the film is “about the wheel of life, about what helps us cope with its turns and find our way in its unforgiving labyrinth.” The Wall Street Journal called the film “a sumptuous treat,” heaping particular praise on Khan and Kaur.
The film was embroiled in controversy late last year, when it was not selected as India’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award; it was passed over in favor of a little-known Gujarati film, The Good Road, which did not end up garnering a nomination. Several Bollywood big-shots came to the defense of The Lunchbox, including Anurag Kashyap (one of the film’s producers), and Karan Johar.
Without that feather in their cap, however, the team behind The Lunchbox must be happy with the results. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes indicates that 95% of the film’s reviews have been positive, and it is now the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year in North America. Its two male leads will be seen in several upcoming movies – Siddiqui stars in Liar’s Dice, a new film which will screen at the New York Indian Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, while Khan is gearing up to shoot Jurassic World later this year.