Ranveer Brar addresses MasterChef criticism of ‘bias’, doubts over show’s ‘scripted’ format: ‘This is my bread and butter, I won’t…’

In an interview with Lallantop, Ranveer explained how a cooking show will inherently be different from a singing or dancing reality show as it is an extremely “personal” experience, unlike the other two formats of talent reality shows.

“When you are watching dance as an audience, you can form a judgement. The biggest problem with a cooking show is that there is just one person who is tasting it. It can happen that what you are looking at is not appealing, but if the one tasing it is saying it is good, then you have to trust that. Unfortunately, there is no other way to make others experience that. Hence, you are more attached to the process.”

The chef said in singing reality shows, viewers are not shown the riyaaz, or in dance reality shows, the rehearsals aren’t shown that much, only the performance is highlighted.

“But here, the performance is on the plate! So how will a show be made? So, you have to show the process and, in that process, there are personalities. Some people speak well, some don’t. But we don’t have to judge the process, we have to judge what’s on the plate. Now before that, if someone spoke nicely, or fought with someone else…. Eventually, the proof is in the pudding. No one has been able to crack this in the format, on how to avoid this. This has now become the format’s strength.”

 

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Ranveer said the viewers now get attached to the contestants because there is so much focus on the process. “Now, if I say it has less salt–you as an audience can’t taste it, so you have to trust it. They can be your favourite contestant, it is also possible that the dish looks really good. This is the beauty of the format, as well as its downside.

“If people say, ‘Oh partiality is happening,’ I think that’s a great discussion point because it means people are connecting with the personalities. I am doing my work, this is my bread and butter and I won’t lie, but if people say something unfair has happened, even then it shows that the audience has been able to connect. Which is fantastic,” he added.

Ranveer judged the last season of MasterChef India along with Vikas Khanna and Garima Arora. During the show, they were first criticised for favouring Aruna Vijay in the cooking reality show. Later, social media was abuzz about them being unfair towards another contestant, Priyanka Kundu Biswas.

On the work front, Ranveer made his acting debut last year with Prime Video’s Modern Love Mumbai. On the anthology, directed by Hansal Mehta and co-starring Pratik Gandhi, Ranveer played a gay chef. He will be next seen in Mehta’s next feature film, headlined by Kareena Kapoor.