Latest news with #Lunchbox
Time of India
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Nawazuddin Siddiqui: We are fortunate to have actors like Om Puri, Manoj Bajpayee and Irrfan
Nawazuddin Siddiqui For Nawazuddin Siddiqui , the journey to cinema, like it does for so many moviegoers, started in a theatre. And in his case, in a remote village, Budhana, in western UP. Nawaz says that Indian cinema 's global presence has been cracked by independent filmmakers and their films are appreciated in Europe, in France. It's a recognition, he feels, that was long overdue and one that keeps him rooted in the kind of cinema he's always loved from the powerful performances of actors like Naseeruddin Shah in Sparsh (1980) to Irrfan in Lunchbox (2013). Nawaz says, "These films, performances, and his theatre training shaped me into the actor I became.' In a conversation, Nawaz spoke about the impact films had on him. 'There are so many films I keep going back to. Dev Anand's Leader, Naseeruddin Shah's Ijaazat, Om Puri 's Ardh Satya' 'The first film I ever watched in a cinema hall was Jaggu Dada (1975),' he recalls. 'I must have been five or six. (Films at that time didn't release immediately in far-fetched areas.) He is an amazing actor and a person. Hamare yahan toh Shatrughan Sinha bahut hi popular thay western UP mein.' Nawaz says he has always been a cinephile in awe of movies by actors who pushed boundaries. 'There are so many films I keep going back to. Dev Anand's Leader, Naseeruddin Shah's Ijaazat, Om Puri's Ardh Satya, Pankaj Kapur's Ek Doctor Ki Maut. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Profit Trick - Read More vividtrendlab Click Here Undo by Taboola by Taboola Ye filmein main baar-baar hazaar baar dekh sakta hoon.' What links them, for him, is not genre or director, but the power of performance. 'It's the actors,' he says. "Inn filmon mein aise actors hain. Hamare country mein aise actors ka hona, ye khushnaseebi hai hum logon ke liye. Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Kamal Haasan, Manoj Bajpayee , Irrfan Khan - they're great actors. Main aisi hi filmein dekh kar bada hua. These films and my theatre training shaped me into the actor I became.' Nawaz says that while the performances of these actors shaped him, film festivals expanded his sense of what Indian cinema could be. 'Berlin ho ya Cannes ya Venice, itne log aate hain sirf cinema ke liye' Nawaz says that he has seen the inside of screening rooms from Venice to Berlin, where crowds show up for cinema and not spectacle. 'Berlin ho ya Cannes ya Venice, itne log aate hain sirf cinema ke liye. You go there, watch films from around the world, and then you see the ones that went from India, aur tab lagta hai ki Thank God! hamare yahan se bhi itni achhi filmein gayi hain. Even if they didn't run in India, even if people here didn't know about them - they worked globally. ' Be it All We Imagine As Light or Lunchbox - these films went on to become a global phenomenon, he says. At a French film panel in 2022, Michele Plazanet, of France's National Centre for Cinema, described it as 'a hit with French audiences,' jokingly noting that it combined their two favourite things - love and food. 'Indian cinema ko kisi ne crack kiya hai toh independent directors ne' This year, Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound made it to Cannes. Payal Kapadia was on the Cannes jury. Village Rockstars 2 by Rima Das just picked up the Kim Jiseok Award at Busan last year. Nawaz says, "Indian cinema ko global level pe kisi ne crack kiya hai toh woh independent directors ne pahunchaya hai. Most of our commercial films are preferred by Indian diaspora, Middle East, but in France, Europe, it is our independent films which are more appreciated. '
Calgary Herald
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Laughter and music on tap with Lunchbox and Stage West's upcoming seasons
Article content Last year was Lunchbox's 50th anniversary season. This new one launches in October with Ontario playwright Kristen Da Silva's Beyond the Sea. This comedy looks at a chance meeting of two strangers whose banter brings them closer to a relationship they both need. Da Silva is a two-time recipient of the Stage West Pechet Family Comedy Award. This is the first production of one of her plays in Calgary. Article content Article content Lunchbox's November play, Ridge, examines a Canadian soldier's experience during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, told through storytelling and live music provided by The Fugitives. It played at the Massey Theatre in New Westminster last year, and spawned the album Trench Songs. Article content Article content Lunchbox's holiday show, How Patty and Joanne Won High School Gold at the Grand Christmas Cup Winter Dance Competition, comes courtesy of Edmonton playwright Trevor Schmidt, whose play Monstress is Vertigo's January offering. Schmidt is no stranger to Lunchbox audiences, who were delighted by his Flora and Fawna's Field Trip and its sequel, Beaver Fever. Article content In January, Lunchbox presents Calgary's multi-award-winning actor Christopher Hunt in his solo show Ribstone, in which he promises to tell audiences about his family's first settlement in Alberta, all the while strumming his banjo. This show is part of One Yellow Rabbit's 2026 High Performance Rodeo. Article content Article content Lunchbox's season will end in March with Thank You for Your Order, by Toronto playwright Jessica Moss. It's an absurdist comedy about a worker at an online shopping centre who falls in love with a customer based on his orders, so she mails herself to him, testing his actual relationship. Article content Stage West will launch its 43rd season in September with the interactive murder-mystery comedy Shear Madness. Set in a hair salon, the woman in the upstairs apartment is murdered, and the audience gets to help the detective trap the murderer. The trick in this one is that it really could be any of the suspects, so the killer's identity can change with each performance. Article content The dinner theatre's holiday show is the 2011 Broadway musical Sister Act, based on the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg film. A singer witnesses a murder, so she is placed in protective custody in a convent where she naturally clashes with the Mother Superior.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lunchbox and UrbanPiper to go global with restaurant tech offerings
Lunchbox has collaborated with restaurant management platform UrbanPiper for the global expansion of technology offerings. The collaboration is set to broaden Lunchbox's core offerings, such as digital ordering, order aggregation, catering and delivery, to the worldwide delivery market. Lunchbox's order aggregation solution, which links third-party marketplaces directly to point-of-sale (POS) systems, provides restaurants with streamlined management for off-premise operations. UrbanPiper middleware platform supports more than 50,000 restaurant areas in 40 countries. It offers comprehensive integrations with delivery platforms, kitchen operations and POS systems. Through UrbanPiper's international infrastructure and integration network, Lunchbox can now offer a path to back the restaurant brands outside the US, eliminating the need for complex replatforming. The partnership also allows UrbanPiper to leverage Lunchbox's enterprise know-how and its US clients to expedite its growth into North America. Both companies aim to remove the requirement for disjointed systems by providing restaurants with a unified control point across international borders. UrbanPiper CEO and co-founder Saurabh Gupta stated: "The US is the most competitive restaurant tech market in the world. "We see a need for a single global contract for a lot of large enterprise brands globally with a comprehensive, all-in-one platform, and so we believe partnering with Lunchbox can help to enable us to do this." In March 2025, Lunchbox appointed James Walker, who had served on the company's board of directors since March 2024, as its new CEO. Walker stated: "The future of restaurant growth lies beyond the four walls. We're not just expanding internationally — we're setting a new standard for global off-premise infrastructure. UrbanPiper is the best partner for that mission." In 2024, US-based restaurant portfolio company BRIX Holdings entered a strategic partnership with Lunchbox to incorporate its suite of digital solutions across the brand portfolio. "Lunchbox and UrbanPiper to go global with restaurant tech offerings" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Associated Press
03-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Lunchbox and UrbanPiper Partner to Lead Global Restaurant Tech Expansion
The partnership combines Lunchbox's enterprise ordering and off-premises solutions with UrbanPiper's global infrastructure to deliver unified restaurant tech across 40+ countries. NEW YORK and BENGALURU, India, June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lunchbox, the enterprise tech platform for restaurants, has partnered with UrbanPiper, the most widely adopted restaurant management platform outside the U.S., trusted by brands like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Subway & Krispy Kreme and many more. The partnership enables Lunchbox to expand its core solutions, including order aggregation, digital ordering, delivery, and catering, to the global delivery market, which is expected to grow from $156.75 billion in 2024 to $173.57 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 10.7%. Order Aggregation—Lunchbox's solution for connecting third-party marketplaces directly to the POS—gives restaurants a more streamlined way to manage off-premise operations. UrbanPiper, a middleware platform powering over 50,000 restaurant locations in 40+ countries, offers deep integrations across delivery platforms, POS systems, and kitchen operations. Powered by UrbanPiper's international infrastructure and integration network, this strategic alliance gives Lunchbox a turnkey path to support restaurant brands outside the United States—without the friction or complexity of replatforming. At the same time, UrbanPiper will tap into Lunchbox's enterprise expertise and U.S. client base to accelerate its expansion into North America, uniting global and local leaders to drive the next phase of off-premise growth. 'The future of restaurant growth lies beyond the four walls,' said James Walker, CEO of Lunchbox. 'We're not just expanding internationally—We're setting a new standard for global off-premise infrastructure. UrbanPiper is the best partner for that mission.' 'The United States is the most competitive restaurant tech market in the world,' said Saurabh Gupta, Co-founder & CEO of UrbanPiper. 'We see a need for a single global contract for a lot of large enterprise brands globally with a comprehensive, all-in-one platform and so we believe partnering with Lunchbox can help to enable us to be able to do this'. The Fastest-Growing Segment in Restaurants? Off-Premise. The restaurant industry is moving away from fragmented tech stacks and legacy point solutions. Operators are no longer willing to juggle half a dozen disconnected systems to manage off-premise dining. They're calling for one platform to unify it all—ordering, data, guests, and operations. That shift is driven by the rise of off-premise, which now makes up nearly 75% of all restaurant transactions, according to the 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends Report. As this segment grows, so does the demand for centralized, intelligent infrastructure that can scale across regions, brands, and channels. Lunchbox x UrbanPiper: A Single Point of Control, From New York to New Delhi Together, they eliminate the need for fragmented systems, giving restaurants a single point of control across borders. About Lunchbox Lunchbox is the enterprise restaurant platform built to help operators drive digital revenue and own the guest relationship across catering, ordering, loyalty, marketing, and more. Trusted by brands like Firehouse Subs, Paris Baguette, and BRIX Holdings, Lunchbox powers scalable growth through unified digital solutions. To learn more, visit Media Contact: [email protected] [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Lunchbox
Indian Express
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Nimrat Kaur opens up about financial struggles before The Lunchbox: ‘There were days when I was very sad'
Actress Nimrat Kaur, who was recently seen on Jio Hotstar's show Kull, appeared on SCREEN's Dear Me Season 2. During the conversation, Nimrat reflected on her journey and opened up about her struggling phase. She spoke about dealing with uncertainty and the anxiety of not knowing when her next paycheck would come. Nimrat also admitted that she isn't a thick-skinned actor and often finds herself affected by judgments directed at her. Looking back at her struggles, Nimrat shared, 'Struggles are unending, and they will exist lifelong. Back when I started, the struggle was different. There was no surety that the reason for which I came to Mumbai would fructify. Will I be able to earn some money through acting? These were the initial questions. After I came here, I got some music videos in 2-3 months. I did a lot of ad films, and then Lunchbox came my way. I also did theater for 4-5 years. At different points in life, I had to struggle with different things.' Also Read: Nimrat Kaur says people are 'unsettled' in marriages that are a front; recalls family pressure to 'settle down' during her struggling days Nimrat Kaur also spoke about a phase when her finances were running low. The actor said, 'Sometimes I would get worried where my next pay cheque would come from? Am I good enough? Should I go back? Do people like seeing me in what I do? Before Lunchbox, there was a point where I didn't know what I would do ahead. While doing theater, there was a time when my bank balance had fallen very low. It was very difficult to understand where money would come from. There was a lot of fear, and returning home in a situation like that is a different kind of humiliation.' 'There were days when I was very sad, low, things were very difficult, challenging. I would cry, feel lonely, but there was a voice inside me that said, 'Don't give up,'' she added. When asked whether she had always been strong-headed or merely appeared that way, Nimrat responded, 'I don't do it publicly, but that doesn't mean I don't go through a hard time. To be in on somebody's vulnerability is a privilege; it's not something anyone can and should have access to.' A post shared by SCREEN (@ieentertainment) 'Anyway, the profession I am in puts me out in ways that sometimes I don't even want to. It's not something I wish for. It is a self-defense mechanism. I choose not to react, flare up, or express myself in an unwanted way. Some things remain forever, and thanks to the internet, it's like a landmine you are walking on. Anything you say can be blasted at any time. It can be made to look a certain way, and whatnot. As the audience, everybody is entitled to an opinion on my work, but everything else. It's not like I am completely immune to it or strong about it, or thick-skinned; in fact, I am the opposite. The complications of a childhood has made me a certain way. I choose my battles now. I don't want to take on issues that I have nothing to do with or that I can have no control over,' added Nimrat, during the interview held at Angry Sardar Restaurant in Andheri, Mumbai. Nawaz Kochra is an enthusiastic entertainment journalistic for the last 9 years, he has been a known face and successfully worked with some big publications. At Nawaz majorly covers TV and OTT and also does video interviews. Having the best conversations with celebrities is what Nawaz loves. ... Read More
