Lunchbox Director Ritesh Batra’s New film’s ​Goes Missing​  India

Where is  the eagerly awaited followup film  to Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox?

Batra who achieved more international acclaim for The Lunchbox than any other Indian film since Satyajit Ray who wowed the world with Pather Panchali , was gung-ho about the Indian release  of The Sense Of An  Ending, a screen adaptation of British author Julian Barnes’ Booker-winning novel featuring a distinguished cast of Briitish actors.”

The film was originally scheduled to release  in India on March 24 and the super-excited director  had said to me,  “The Sense Of An Ending is being brought to India by PVR. I must say it’s good of them to back my film. It is an English-language film and I didn’t expect it would get such an easy release in India.But I am happy to say there are lots of Julian Barnes fans in India as well, and some people who  are looking forward to seeing what I’ve done after The Lunchbox. I am curious and anxious to see how people react to it.”

Well, Barnes’ fans in India, as too Batra’s have all bowed to Baahubali.

March 24 came and went. There was no sign of Batra’s film in Indian theatres. Reports in  a section of the press suggested that the censor board had held up the film for  its key love-making scenes.However sources at  the censor board pooh-poohed these claims as “dealying tactics”, saying the film  had nothing objectionable.

The Sense Of An Ending  which opened  in the US on 10 March , was then announced for April 7. The new release date in India  of the highly acclaimed film—which the Washington Post has described as “an excellent adaptation”—has also come and gone.

No sign of  this eagerly awaited film!

Repeated attempts to get PVR, Ritesh Batra’s film’s Indian distributors, to shed some clarity on the mystery of the missing masterpiece was roadblocked rudely by key personalities in the company who simply seem to have no interest in the fate of the film .No comment was available from anyone at PVR despite repeated attempts.

“Why should they comment? Kis mooh se  kuch bolenge? PVR is no longer  interested in releasing Ritesh Batra’s The Sense Of An Ending.  It is seen as too British for Indian tastes, even if a globally acclaimed Indian director has directed it. Aesthetic and critically acclaimed Hollywood films don’t do well in India. The Oscar-winning Moonlight was a  flop in India. With The Fast & The Furious 8  and Baahubali 2 ruling the boxoffice this summer season, PVR is not interested in investing money in a brooding introspective British film about  an autumnal hero’s introspection,” says an informed source.