New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS): It's a great way to start the New Year, says Indian director Ritesh Batra, whose debut feature movie "The Lunchbox" has been nominated in the Film Not in the English Language category of the British Academy Film Awards 2015.

"It's an incredible honour for me and my team. I am in London right now, and I just heard about it, and we are honoured to be nominated alongside the finest films of the year. It's a great way to start the New Year," Batra told IANS over phone.

The nominations for the awards, organised annually by British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), were announced in London Friday.

"The Lunchbox", starring Nimrat Kaur and Irrfan Khan, is competing with Polish-Danish drama film "Ida", Russian drama "Leviathan", Brazilian-British adventure drama thriller film "Trash", and Belgian drama "Two Days, One Night", according to the official BAFTA website.

The movie is a unique love story between a lovelorn wife and a lonely man. While it released in India in 2013, it hit the British screens only in 2014.

Jointly produced by multiple studios like DAR Motion Pictures, UTV Motion Pictures, Dharma Productions, Sikhya Entertainment, National Film Development Corporation (India), ROH Films (Germany), ASAP Films (France), and the Cine Mosaic (US), the film has done its round of international film festivals, including those in Cannes, Zurich, London and Toronto.

With names like Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, Guneet Monga and Danis Tanovic backing it, it went on to become one of the highest grossing foreign films at the US box office.

The story revolves around Ila, a young middle class Mumbai housewife, essayed by Nimrat, trying to win back her husband's affections through his stomach and how a rare misplaced delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient 'dabbawala' system of lunchboxes, from homes to offices, connects her to an old widower, played by Irrfan, through notes in the lunch box.