Sutapa Sikdar fondly recollects Irrfan Khan’s iconic relationship with Lunchboxes as The Lunchbox turns 10

Sutapa Sikdar shares heartwarming memories and insights about Irrfan Khan's connection with Lunchboxes.

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

September 22, 2023 - 12:39 PM IST

As The Lunchbox celebrated its 10th anniversary recently, Sutapa Sikdar, the wife of the late Irrfan Khan, took to Instagram to share a touching tribute to the iconic film and its unique significance in the actor's life. Through a heartfelt note accompanied by a poster of the film, Sutapa reminisced about Irrfan's relationship with lunchboxes and the enduring memories associated with it.

Sutapa Sikdar fondly recollects Irrfan Khan’s iconic relationship with Lunchboxes as The Lunchbox turns 10

Sutapa Sikdar, known for her poignant and heartfelt posts, expressed her sentiments about The Lunchbox, a film that holds a special place in the hearts of both cinephiles and Irrfan Khan's fans. The movie, which completed a decade since its release, served as a platform for Sutapa to reflect on her late husband's connection with lunchboxes. In her Instagram post, Sutapa shared a picture of Irrfan Khan from the film and recalled, “Ten years of lunchbox !! I relooked at the poster of Irrfan opening a lunchbox with curiosity, warmth ,uncertainty written on his face. There was that smile which for some reason reminded me of our smirk and “phir se aalu baingan hai re kaisi ulzhan”!! the iconic phrase when we were in college but this smile was not that yet this line in mind reminded me of irrfan’s real-life relationship with lunchboxes. Irrfan went to a school called St.Paul in Jaipur( “English medium”because of his mother as she insisted though his father didn’t see the need.) and apparently everyone got white bread sandwiches ( brown bread was not in as yet ) and fancy jam rolls etc while irrfan got paranthas made by ammi and hated it and dreaded to open the lunch box in school in inferiority complex injected by this perception as if sandwiches were an emblem of upper class. Ironically years later he hated his children having bread for breakfast ( even so called brown bread ,by now that was in)and years later who knew a lunchbox would be so iconic in his work and change his life personally too in terms of work , who knew a lunch box for irrfan aka sajan farnandis would bring so much of warmth and anticipation before opening the lunch box to irrfan. All childhood trauma gone.

The notes in the lunch box reminded me of me putting note for my children in the tiffin box and children would be blushing and be happy about it upon their return from school. Irrfan loved the feeling the kids were feeling as he really craved for that from his ammi and never got. Her ways of showing love was different then he had in mind as a kid. this unquenched thirst for love was always there in his life. and years later he had the same excitement on his stomach but as sajaan he couldn’t show it to the world so he would open the lunch box carefully and trying to normalize the excitement kind of expression while reading the notes from Nimrat in the lunch box.

The ‘ lunch box’ played a big role in irrfan’s life. #childhoodtrauma #the lunchbox#irrfan#decadeoflunchbox.”

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The Lunchbox starred Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur. It is the story of Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) who ends up getting the wrong lunchbox one day at work. It leads to the beginning of a novel relationship between him and Ila Singh (Nimrat Kaur), who cooked the dishes that landed on Saajan's desk. Nawazuddin Siddiqui played the role of Aslam Shaikh, Saajan's happy-go-lucky colleague.

Also Read: 10 Years of The Lunchbox: The Irrfan Khan-starrer was a RARE niche film to cross Rs. 100 crore mark; its overseas collections were more than that of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Krrish 3, Ram-leela