India The Lunchbox returned 5.1× its production cost, earning $17.2M against a $3.4M budget — one of the highest-return India films in our catalog.
Synopsis
“Can You Fall In Love With Someone You Have Never Met?”
A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai's Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife to a stranger in the dusk of his life. They build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.
Audience Engagement
634 audience reviews — more than 98% of India films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 95th percentile among India films.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 44m runtime, production spent $33K per minute on screen and earned $166K per minute back.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Lunchbox. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From UTV Motion Pictures
Drama + Romance in India
356 India titles in our catalog blend the Drama and Romance genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Lunchbox itself).
The 2012–2014 India Window
Among 262 India films we catalog from this window, The Lunchbox places #31 — near the top of its class.
The 2010s India Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2010s in India, 919 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Lunchbox premiered alongside 100 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 100 other India films in 2013.
The 1015th India title from India we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1913).
Our India catalog contains 1,983 titles in total (1,904 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Lunchbox, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- gastronomia · 3
- housewife · 2
- tiffin · 1
- indian cuisine · 1
- food · 21
- mumbai (bombay) · 18
- india · 84
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #281 of 1,983 India films indexed here (86th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.9 points above the India average of 6.4/10.
Among India Drama productions specifically: #206 of 1,132 (top 18%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | India |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | France, Germany, India, United States of America |
| Original Language | Hindi |
| Spoken Languages | English, Hindi |
| Production Companies | UTV Motion Pictures, Sikhya Entertainment, DAR Motion Pictures, Dharma Productions, ARTE France Cinéma |
| Runtime | 1h 44m |
| Release Date | September 20, 2013 |
| IMDb | tt2350496 |
| Official Site | sonyclassics.com |