Plate Full

It is this connection between family and food that has made Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana,which he dubs as “essentially a story of protagonist Omi Khurana’s homecoming”,the first Bollywood film in the food genre. “We are a country obsessed with food. It was impossible for me to tell a story about Omi’s connection with his family without food being integral to it,” explains Sharma,who started out in the industry as an assistant director for Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and has,since then,penned several films including Bhoot and Swades.

The film,co-written by Sumit Bhateja,revolves around Omi,played by Kunal Kapoor,who ran away from home at a very young age. Following trouble with some gangs in London,he returns home many years later in the hope of some monetary aid. However,he realises that his grandfather’s dhaba,called Chicken Khurana after his famous chicken preparation,has shut down and his childhood sweetheart is engaged to his cousin. Omi realises that in order to set his life right,he must discover the recipe of Chicken Khurana,which his grandfather — veteran actor Vinod Nagpal who plays Daarji — no longer remembers.

Set in the village of Lalton in Punjab,the film has been shot primarily on location and also in Ludhiana. Sharma was keen on keeping the Punjabi factor authentic “as opposed to the common Bollywoodised version”,and had,therefore,earlier decided to make it as a Punjabi language movie. “When Anurag Kashyap came on board as a producer,he encouraged me to make it into a commercial entertainer,” explains Sharma.

To add authenticity to the depiction of Punjab as well as qualify as a true food film,Sharma and his team made several trips to the state to meet local food specialists,chefs and also farmers and other regular people. The experiences gave them a sense of the culture,people,food habits along with pictorial references. His experiences of waiting tables and handling his hotelier father’s eatery in South Africa also helped.

While Sharma’s immediate influences in terms of food have been his father and Dehramji,the director also has other associations with the film industry — legendary singer Mukesh was his maternal grandfather,distributor BM Sharma was his paternal grandfather and his uncle Romesh Sharma is a producer. He believes that members of the film industry are among the biggest of foodies. “There are pictures of Raj Kapoor in his kitchen,making daal. Yash Chopra too lives to eat,” he says.

While food forms an integral part of Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana,which releases next month,Sharma insists that it is not the only aspect to it. “There is much more to this film — there are characters one can relate to and a simple but heartfelt story that will resonate with the audience,” he says.