EXCLUSIVE: Indian filmmaker Ritesh Batra has lined up a host of international collaborators for his debut feature The Lunchbox (Dabba), a co-production between France’s ASAP Films, Germany’s rohfilm, New York-based Cine Mosaic and India’s Anurag Kashyap Films. 

Starring Irrfan Khan (Life Of Pi) and Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Gangs Of Wasseypur), the film is currently shooting in Mumbai and expected to wrap in November. German sales agent The Match Factory will represent the film worldwide.

“International creative partners are important to tell a universal story set in India; they make the process less esoteric and then bring audiences to it,” Batra told Screen.

The Lunchbox revolves around Mumbai’s dabbawallahs or lunchbox delivery men. The story follows two people living solitary lives until a chance encounter helps them to create a fantasy world together which gradually overwhelms their reality.

The Lunchbox was part of Screenwriters’ Lab at NFDC Film Bazaar in 2011. Earlier this year it won a Jury Special Mention at Rotterdam’s co-production market CineMart and was also selected for Talent Project Market at Berlinale 2012.

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