Director Ritesh Batra on his Mumbai Set Love Story The Lunchbox

Writer/director Ritesh Batra is enjoying critical and viewer acclaim for his first feature-length film, The Lunchbox. The film, set in Mumbai, is a quiet love story that takes place mostly through hand-written letters. So it’s a surprise to find the Indian-born director and his film at the center of a fiery controversy over the current role and power of the Film Federation of India.

But the decision late last year by India’s official film body to select a lesser-known film with limited distribution,